Inventions To Thank Pagans For

[dacjohns]

Pagan is a pretty broad term. How about a definition.

 

[urban dreamer]

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I thought the French invented that?

Naw seriously, some little pagan kid brought home the first pet chicken and then they got a whole bunch more chickens and so on on so forth...

 

[deb1]

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Any person who is not part of a monotheistic religion.

 

[PortageGirl]

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LOL, it IS a broad term! Some define it as anything that isn't 'their' religion, others say all non-Abrahamic religions, which is to say anything other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and some say the ‘old’ polytheistic or pre-Christian religion.

Really, all the Abrahamic religions have an actal word within their religions and cultures which mean non-believer, and consider those people heathens and/or pagans in one way or another.

I'm not interested in turning this into anything that specific, I think it's just an interesting topic. I happen to like our differences here on BYC and don't want to start trolling for trouble.

//edit// I wanted to add that there were several of the pre-Christian religions which would persecute anyone who wouldn't embrace their own beliefs. Religion has never been all about sweetness and light after all!

 

[deb1]

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LOL, it IS a broad term! Some define it as anything that isn't 'their' religion, others say all non-Abrahamic religions, which is to say anything other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and some say the ‘old’ polytheistic or pre-Christian religion.

Really, all the Abrahamic religions have an actal word within their religions and cultures which mean non-believer, and consider those people heathens and/or pagans in one way or another.

I'm not interested in turning this into anything that specific, I think it's just an interesting topic. I happen to like our differences here on BYC and don't want to start trolling for trouble.

//edit// I wanted to add that there were several of the pre-Christian religions which would persecute anyone who wouldn't embrace their own beliefs. Religion has never been all about sweetness and light after all!

I agree. Although I am treading carefully here, I think that in general humans can find a way to turn even the most beautiful, perfect belief system into something to hurt one another with.

I hope no one is offended by my thread. I just thought that this would be a fun subject.

 

[michickenwrangler]

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Pretty much ALL languages with the possible exceptions of Hebrew, Aramaic and a few other Semitic languages in the Afro-Asian branch. The Indo-Europeans were cattle-herding horse barbarians, the Altaic languages came from sheep herding horse barbarians, the Finno-Ugric/Uralic languages (Suomi, Magyar, Avar) come from more cattle-herding horse barbarians, American Indian languages from the same, Bantu languages from polytheistic hunter-gathers, etc...

Also, the whole concept of time divided by a base 6 system rather than a base 10. The former was used by the Sumerians, 60 seconds, 60 minutes 24 (a multiple of 6) hours. Someone tried to explain metric time to me and my head began to hurt.

 

[dacjohns]

I'm not offended at all.

I think though that with pagan being defined as other than the three major monotheistic religious groups maybe the thread should be what was invented by nonpagans. So many inventions came about before or outside the influence of the three. Also inventions could be attributed to a single person that could be a "pagan" even if that inventor had roots in a religion.

Also (treading very lightly here) what does a religious belief (or lack of) have to do with advancement of technology, government, etc.?

Just wondering. Not trying to poke a stick in a hornets nest.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

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I believe that it goes back to the Halloween thread, where someone posted "they don't participate in anything pagan". Could be wrong but it would be the same as someone saying they don't participate in anything black/white/hispanic/etc, and then someone started a subesquent thread of "inventions to thank black/white/hispanic/etc for". Or it could simply be a strange coincident that I drew a line of connection between. LOL

Nowadays, so many things have multiple meanings or history, it's nearly impossible to participate in anything pagan or non-pagan. Take Christmas for example, it has so many meanings to so many different people, it all boils down to what you celebrate it for. I and my family are Christians, but we participate in Christmas trees. It's simply what you believe and why you believe it. Same thing with Easter, we paint eggs and gift Easter bunnies, we celebrate it as the day Christ rose, but still participate in practices that have bases in pagan belief.

-Kim

 

[dacjohns]

Discovering how to use fire.

The wheel.

Discovery of other basic principles of physics such as friction and wedges.

And the list goes on and on.

 

[AngieChick]

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Actually, the Romans were pretty patriarchal. They also had little to no tolerance of or respect for any way of life that wasn't Roman. Now the Gauls on the other hand were pretty matriarchal.

There was a great BBC show called "Barbarians" that was hosted by Terry Jones. It's available from Netflix. We learned so much from that little 4 part series.