Which polytheistic religion is the coolest?
Which polytheistic religion is the coolest?
Luke Young
Ethan Carter
I sorta practice one of those since I was a kid.
I feel that mine's the least cool (it's in that image) since I know little about it outside my local sphere.
Shame that 4 of those are dead though (outside of small circles), they seem cool.
t. non-spaniard
Ryan Lee
Someone deleted their post asking what it was, either Greek or Norse.
I didn't know anyone thought of those two as alive, maybe it's just my biased perspective.
Also, Shinto. Like I said though, I actually know little about it outside of where I grew up / live, because of the whole Yaoyorozu thing.
If anyone's actually curious, my shrine's the one that shows up in Your Name, the one with the big staircase.
If you are ever in Shinjuku please go offer something.
Sorry for rambling, I'm tired and enjoy going on about this.
Carter Rivera
Greek and norse. Ancient finnish is also pretty cool, however thats mostly because thats closest to me
Gavin Peterson
Greek Hindu and Egyptian are all pretty cool
Carson Robinson
Hinduism, but its in reality monoteistic.
Alexander Rogers
Do people believe in Shinto myths in a literal sense? Like if I went to Japan and asked if Amaterasu and all that are true, would anyone say yes?
Jaxson Kelly
Probably not, unless you ask old people.
My grandma does I'm sure.
Most people are on the same level as me though, with at most a Kamidana and generally believing in gods and all that.
I have no idea what the youth think though since I've been abroad for a while.
Logan Myers
>According to surveys carried out in 2006[12] and 2008,[13] less than 40% of the population of Japan identifies with an organised religion: around 35% are Buddhists, 3% to 4% are members of Shinto sects and derived religions. In 2008, 26% of the participants reported often visiting Shinto shrines, while only 16.2% expressed belief in the existence of a god or gods (神) in general.[13]
Jacob Martin
Thanks.
Cooper Lewis
Hindus have cool myths.
Luis Gutierrez
Yeah, keep in mind though that folk shinto / atheism are grouped together though so the numbers are probably a bit higher but it's hard to say by how much.
Benjamin Rogers
Do you think that popculture taking over myths is killing the belief?
People wouldnt dare to make a videogame about muhammad summoning angels to fight against arab deities and shash their shrines for examples.
Lincoln Rogers
Finnic
Tyler Roberts
Slavic/Baltic paganism, with Norse/Germanic being second
Liam Phillips
Yoruba
Hunter Rogers
I would play that game.
Christopher Adams
Literally practiced here.
Most of the adepts just throw dead black chicken and dead snakes on crossroad though
Owen Cooper
hindu mythology + egyptian aesthetics
Aaron Brown
Norse paganism and Hinduism is pretty aesthetic
Aaron Clark
I thought those were the umbandas
Or is it the same thing?
Ian Reyes
WE WUZ MAGIC THE GATHERING N SHEEEIIIT
Nolan Powell
Christianity
Alexander Jackson
I think it does the opposite, at least for shinto. It sorta reminds them that they do believe the stuff, at least for me as I'm abroad all the time.
I also think for shinto at least, it can be used for games easily, ie Touhou Project. Nobody would get offended by a fictional god's depiction, but they'd still remember the ties to what they believe and culture.
Nathaniel Clark
Greek.
James Thompson
Every except Norse, honestly
Chase Allen
Me too, but imagine the butthurt.
Old testament is space-tier too at times with speaking bushes and shit. Christianity is made fun of frequently but its symbols are not outrightly trivialised yet with jesus actionpuppets and the like. That situation is happening with eastern gods though it seems.
Aiden Hall
They practice a religion derivate from Yoruba that's mostly the same as the original one but with the name of the gods changed.
They're still called Orishas as a group though
Christopher Edwards
Really though, if you use Milton's word "god" as an indicator of polytheism, it's quite interesting. It would just be a combination of different pagan religions, but there's gotta be some small sect worshipping that stuff.
Jaxon Morris
Oh well then is good.
I had the impression it would be like that, as it seems hard to play with some anime-god as sugoi action sidekick and then kneeling in front of its worldy idol showing true respect in its presence.
But maybe thats a western/abrahamic viewpoint thats internalised idk.
Evan Fisher
>Literal mythology and religion practiced by an actual civilization
What does this have anything to do with magic the gathering?
Jack Cruz
Greek
Owen Gutierrez
Idc about Milton (lol are you talking about the British poet?), I just think theres not that big a difference between saying "different gods" or "3 different persons of God and also Gods mom and also the Saints and also all the Dead people".
Polytheism vs Monotheism is mostly just a meme.
Elijah Cruz
I like how they believe in an all powerful creator who just doesnt give a fuck about humans, so we only deserve to interact with lower deities as intercessor who can be bothered to care.
Not really oan optimist kind of view.
Anthony Morgan
Different user but the cards in are a bit cheese and do look like magic the gathering. Too over the top and Hollywood looking.
Mason Hall
I meant demons, ie demonology cults, which were referred to as gods lowercase. Sorry for being unclear.
I also get what you mean, but some religions use "god" in a very different way from Abrahamics.
Luke Perez
Yeah and they way they use God is more similar to how """""""""abrahamics"""""""""""" (another meme term lel) use saint or persons of god etc.
Christopher Cruz
Another thing is according to Yoruba mythology humanity is responsible for it's own suffering they asked one of the God's for unique traits and inequality resulting in human conflict the myth bassically states chaos is the root of freewill and individuality
Adam Lewis
Polytheism is a sin
Oliver Ross
Of those?
Greek - Pleb tier but still good
Norse - Overrated, good for the wacky hijinks stories
Hindu - Pretty cool, caste system's a tad gay
Aztec - Honestly don't know much
Shinto - The folklore is fun, Gods are okay. Iza is pretty much cuhrayzee Adam and Eve
Jason Baker
Looking at african shrines in benin, it seems that anthropomorphic depictions arent that common safe for some clumsy wallfreskos which seem unclear about whether they depict gods or worshippers.
Maybe completely human-like depiction as the greeks and east asians did it was a foreign idea to them at first?
Connor Kelly
youtube.com
Singapore has no cult-
Jeremiah Gomez
In brass sculptures wood carvings and in Brazil they have statues
Cameron Richardson
Not really you have things like the olokun heads but it was mostly reserved for major deities plus the also have masquerades depicting the gods
Ethan Foster
Julian Lopez
Luis Gutierrez
>The Bronze Head from Ife, or Ife Head,[1] is one of eighteen copper alloy sculptures that were unearthed in 1938 at Ife in Nigeria, the religious and former royal centre of the Yoruba people. It is believed to represent a king. It was probably made in the thirteenth-fourteenth century C.E
So it was produced just before or while the portugeese were prodding into west africa? Afaik atm the iberians werent even that unimpressed by african towns unlike when a closer look was taken again on the natives after 19th century conquest.
As it was found on accident and had not been kept by the locals it seems to have been a kind of craft that had was forgotten when the english came.
>it was beliefed to portray a king
But not a god? No idea how they know it wasnt a god, but if theyre right it could still mean that idols were meant to be more abstract.
Pic related seems to show a nice contrast between the traditional horned mount and an almost biblical or roman looking figure.
Jose Clark
The heads found date to the 14th century and 13th century
Leo Anderson
Olokun was a god same with Shango both were kings but were made into gods according to yoruba mythology
Matthew Ward
Yes thats what I said.
But they were not kept into the the 20th century but literally unearthed in the 30s. So they had been lost and the locals did not produce them anymore, which was why they apparently took the europeans by suprise.
>Experts could not believe that Africa had ever had a civilisation capable of creating artefacts of this quality.
So there must have been some cultural degradation. An ivory coast dark age? Im not much into african history but thats intereting.
Joseph Jones
Yeah Ife was destroyed by fulani jhads
Thomas Anderson
That explains it then
Dominic Foster
Aztec/Mesoamerican is edgy skulls for the skull throne stuff mixed with muh mother earth stuff
Henry Clark
I'm a canadian, look at me!
Brody Collins
Well africa archology is bassically under researched plus all the looting infact they just within the last two decades discovered the igbo uwuku
Caleb Martinez
caste system has NOTHING to do with Hinduism as a religion lol
caste was a social system designed to prevent miscegenation. That's like saying Apartheid or Jim Crow is related to Christianity
Jordan Green
In west Africa it's bassically people wearing beeds animal buddies Chaos and natrual forces type shit
Ryder Taylor
Wasn't the original caste system abolished by the Mughals? But the British brought it back
Christian Jones
>dont know much
christicenter.org
this one is an easy and short read.
Carter Adams
I think that's the main issue with abrahamic religions.
People are way too afraid of blasphemy, as long as you have faith and love god, you can't be blasphemous imo
Parker Sanchez
based fulanis
Julian Price
BENIS :D
Julian Rogers
it was never really abolished
just de facto vs de jure use
Zachary Moore
Well you defend what you hold dear.
Rites to deities are, today less so then back then, tightly connected to what behaviour was deemed moral, morality itself sometimes and always to the most important stages of your life, your birth and naming, your passing from adolescence, burials of loved ones, courtship, wedding and again birth, maybe enterprise like the harvest or business and finally preparation for your own death.
To mock god(s) is to mock all of that if they took apart in it through your prayer, thoughts and adoration no?
Cooper Martinez
>Destroy beautiful and highly skilled art, raid and pillage the largest library in Africa, burn books, and destroy peaceful pagans destroy key parts of african history yep pretty bassed
Liam Torres
Albeit defending the "form" of it too zealously might indeed let you forget about the contend and compensate with violence. idk man is hard to put in words.
Elijah Baker
>caring what happens to polytheists
not based at all user
Austin Phillips
Correct. It is fundamentally a monotheistic religion but it's manifested as a polytheistic religion. I like to refer to it as a "psuedo-polytheistic" religion.
Kevin Bennett
for a religion so "cosmic" and otherwordly why does it lend to such strange practices as feeding rats or dirtiness in general? I'm not trying to be insulting I'm genuinly curious
Ian Nguyen
How do you mean? Is it like a thing where there's one real god who has a bunch of forms worshipped as lesser gods? If so, who's the real god? Hinduism is really poorly taught in the West.
Noah Clark
based
Isaiah Jenkins
hinduism
Jonathan Turner
Hinduism isn't essentially a religion itself, it's a way of life. It's actual name is Sanatana Dharma. Hinduism just came to become a popular way of referring to it and has now come to be accepted as it's official name.
A lot of people, including several Hindus themselves seem to forget that more than a religion or a belief, it's a principle. A way of life. Something to follow through and through. Most current day Hindus are just Hindus in name.
Regardless, the point I want to make is that Hinduism in itself being a way of life is something that's very flexible. People believe what they wish to believe in. Even the story of creation has various takes on it. Some believe that in the beginning, time and reality didn't exist. There was only nothingness. Then the nothingness began to collapse on itself and become a huge congregation which simultaneously exploded with a resounding sound of "Om". It is this sound that allowed reality and time itself to form. While others believe in different creation myths.
There are theistic hindus and there are even sects of Hinduism that atheistic, as weird as that may sound.
Like said/asked, Hinduism in reality believes in a singular existence. All that exists, doesn't exist is inherently a part of that existence. It's genderless, formless and is the ultimate existence that lives beyond our understanding, it's called The Brahman (different from Brahmans who are a caste. The way to pronounce the two words are different). The central belief in Hinduism is that everything is a part of the Brahman and it exists inside all of us too as "Atman"/Soul. The more righteous people have more of the Brahman inside of them and it's much much more higher in the lesser gods and highest in the Great Gods (Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva)
When we die, we are born again and this cycle continues on and on. To obtain salvation/nirvana/moksha, we need to get enough karma.
Daniel Roberts
Thanks a lot for your answer it's a really interesting cosmovision. I'll read more on it
Jason Hill
Is this related to Sikhism and Jainism or are they unrelated religions?
Oliver Taylor
(Cont)
Some believe the way to get karma is through obtaining knowledge/Vidya
Others believe it is through doing good unto others and to themselves while some believe it is through religious piousness as well. Hinduism doesn't condemn atheists per se. There's an old saying that an atheist that does good is much better than a believer who always does bad but goes to the temple to LARP as religious.
I don't know why i said all of this shit desu, just flowed away while writing. My main motive was to explain that Hinduism doesn't have rigid beliefs. So maybe the people who feed rats milk believe that by feeding them they are doing good and it's good karma for them.
Just like that, people believe all hindus worship cows or all hindus don't eat beef. Which is incorrect.
Hindus don't worship cows, they think cows are holy because in one of the creation myths cows are seen as a maternal figure and Krishna (one of the deities) considered cows as his steed.
But not all hindus follow this principle, many hindus (including me) eat beef.
So yeah basically this much
Austin Diaz
Sure! I may not know much but if you have anything else to enquire about I'll try my best to give you an answer.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism all come under Dharmic religions.
The closest religion to Hinduism is probably Buddhism.
Around the time Buddha was alive, Hinduism had become completely toxic and aged itself out. It had no philosophical competitor and was a decaying piece of its former self. The philosophical questions it asked and it's spirituality had all but disappeared because of priests abusing the religion for their own merit. Buddha took the age old beliefs and principles of Hinduism and added his own philosophies into them, birthing what is Buddhism. People of India found Buddhism to be much more right and much more relatable. It gave them solace, it gave them something to believe in, something that Hinduism didn't anymore. This was a wake-up call for Hinduism itself. The fires of philosophy and spirituality were rekindled. Sages and philosphers engaged in religious debates with Buddhism, addressing the lacking parts of both religion. This helped Hinduism mend itself and under go an essential revision. The people of India, felt more satisfied with the new Hindu philosophy and reconverted to it. It's why Buddhist population in India is low today, despite it being the origin place of Buddhism.
Sikhism originated in the midst of Islamic conquest. As a philosophical as well as physical defense of Dharmic religions. Hindus are grateful to Sikhs for defending and saving us during those times.
Unfortunately, I don't have much information about Jainism. I never enquired much about it from my Jain friends. I believe it is quite similar to Buddhism but it's main principle is peace with oneself and nature. Hence they're not allowed to hurt any living creature, be it animal or insect.
Brody Wilson
The Titans/Greek. Humanity had better ideas in that time.
Gods were not unexploined phenomenon, but ideas and concepts. Like Time, Chronos. Nyx, Darkness, not laughable stuff like thunder, or the sea
Ayden Nguyen
Bamp