Connection between Greeks and Christains?

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Rouge47

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I first want to say that I'm new here and I take quite an interest in learning about other religions. Anyway to the point...I have always wondered if there was a connection between Greek mythology and christain life today and back then. I haven't found any yet but I've been having this feeling latley about it and I just have to ask and get the 411.

Take care,
Paul:D

P.S. I really like the site and I hope I will enjoy my stay here and make new friends. [e-mail address removed by I, Brian]
 
Paul James said:
I first want to say that I'm new here and I take quite an interest in learning about other religions. Anyway to the point...I have always wondered if there was a connection between Greek mythology and christain life today and back then. I haven't found any yet but I've been having this feeling latley about it and I just have to ask and get the 411.

Take care,
Paul:D

P.S. I really like the site and I hope I will enjoy my stay here and make new friends. My e-mail address is
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There are more connections than I could probably list. I would suggest that you start by reading about the Dionysian mysteries and other, related mystery religions, Plato's Timaeus, and Neoplatonic philosophy (particularly the writings of Philo of Alexandria).
 
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Hi Paul James, and welcome to CR. :)

As Abogado points out, if you want to see connections between two spheres of belief, it helps immensely to read something of one or more of those beliefs.

You don't even need to read neoplatonism to get started - simply read up some of the Ancient Greek mythology and you may find a couple of ideas familiar to Christianity there. :)
 
The Greeks even invented Christianity :D (Is that even possible)?

You see, on every Street in Europe there is a Church, Christianity was spread by many Martyrs originally, and the first ones that lay the foundations (other then Christ) were the Greeks. Even the philosophical views of Christianity can be compared with Greek philosophers. Then you throw in a few paganism practises and you get Christianity... It’s not the fact that Christianity is a made up religion, it's that the Greeks lay the foundations for Christ to come.. ;) The Greeks are seen highly in the bible, the bible was also originally written in Greek. If you visit Greece or Cyprus one day, and meet some Greeks you will understand that they are unlike any other people on the planet. From family life to morals, to celebration it's all done in joy and happiness, they gave a lot to the world, even the beloved democratic system. They gave the world the foundations of civilised people on earth today, that still strive to catch up :) Also one of the reasons they have a long history of being so victorious in battles that they are out numbered massively.
 
Yeah. Greeks pretty much rock. But the Irish saved western civilization. Right?
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I suppose, Americans (a nation of nations including the Irish) gave us Prozac, Ecstacy, Big Macs, Playboy and the Da Vinci codes. :D Great positives of America would be flight and space travel of course built on the foundations of one reason, Mo' Money :) Christianity and democracy of course is suicide and no benefit for the people that introduced it other then pure sacrifice for the benifit of others. Could be that the west is cursed, built on ill foundations. Greece paid the price of her early ill foundations, they went from Super power to no power by the Romans to Ottomans. However today she is paradise. Read the morral story of Midas touch to understand :)
 
Postmaster said:
I suppose, Americans (a nation of nations including the Irish) gave us Prozac, Ecstacy, Big Macs, Playboy and the Da Vinci codes. :D
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You forgot "Twinkies" and Adam Sandler movies.
 
It's amazing though, because the WEST are inventing fantastic ways of curing cancer, asthma, Diabetes then you are charged ridiculous prices for the therapy :).. But a lot of people in the med, middle east, east live to a ripe old age, the health in Greece is high, the crime is extremely low, the education is high, yet the economy has always been crap. You see it's modern society that is cauing the problems that need to be cured in the first place, Gods creation is "perfect"... Funny how things work out sometimes, the only way for humans to advance is through kindness, sacrifice and not to benefit over his fellow brother in anyway, I suppose this is what Christianity is about..

Got to admit though we can't do without Hollywood. ;) You really can't judge things from a small scale, you get the good and bad everywhere.... Look at it from a larger perspective you can see things differently. The whole world is guilty, we're polluting the world, destroying the Ozone layer and it won't be until the day the effects will be irreversible until we say, ahh sh*t......

 
Postmaster said:
It's amazing though, because the WEST are inventing fantastic ways of curing cancer, asthma, Diabetes then you are charged ridiculous prices for the therapy :).. But a lot of people in the med, middle east, east live to a ripe old age, the health in Greece is high, the crime is extremely low, the education is high, yet the economy has always been crap. You see it's modern society that is cauing the problems that need to be cured in the first place, Gods creation is "perfect"... Funny how things work out sometimes, the only way for humans to advance is through kindness, sacrifice and not to benefit over his fellow brother in anyway, I suppose this is what Christianity is about..
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Yeah. The funny thing about Western "science" is that 9 times out of 10 the cure ultimately turns out to be worse than the problem it was supposed to solve.

Oh well. As long as people continue to pretend they understand the big picture of the universe, it'll be business as usual (both in matters of the spirit and science).
 
Yeah. The funny thing about Western "science" is that 9 times out of 10 the cure ultimately turns out to be worse than the problem it was supposed to solve.
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It is the Hippocratic law that from thousands of years ago that modern doctors must abide by today in order to complete there medical degrees, and it was the father of medicine that told us for something to be classed as a cure it needs to outweigh the side effects, today this law isn't fulfilled in some cases (Greedy companies)... However, the ancient Greek doctors including people like Socrates were more in touch with the spiritual side of people and were the original inventors of Homeopathy.. Socrates even believed that sunlight was a powerful force in healing people, this has been proven today, people are buying light therapy devices from places like www.apollolight.com to cure depression, spots ect ect.. My Grandfather in Cyprus is 82 years old, he went to the doctors with a cold and was prescribed to sit in his back yard directly in the sunlight for a few hours a day. :)... The sun is the one of soureces of all life on earth, the ancients were spot on in understanding it was greater then them, they were correct ;)
 
Ok here are some pointers for you.

Greek philosophy plays a large role in Christianity

The bible was firstly written in Greek, after all the heretics fled Palestine into Greece and many of which were Greek descent themselves.

A lot of Greek paganism traditions remain in Christianity, like the birth of Christ 25th of December is also the Birth day of Dionysus as an example and many more connections a like.
 
Plato already didn't believe in the Greek gods anymore. Christianity was rather influenced by neoplatonism and Coptic religion.
E.g.: The gospel of John begins with a reference to the "logos" or word. Plato saw "logos" as the basic principle in the universe. John related those two by saying "and the word was God".
 
Halloumi is the Cypriot national cheese with a Lebonese name. Feta is better choice :p
 
Just a couple of historical pointers —

Christianity's heritage is two-fold:
Salvation history in the Hebrew Tradition;
Philosophy in the Hellenic Tradition.

There is a great distinction between Greek mythology and Greek philosophy — the latter had rendered the former largely redundant — and the 'Greek fathers' to a man belonged to the latter camp.

But the Fathers of the first two centuries were largely Hebrew-influenced, if not straight converts. The foundation of faith had been well established before philosophy began to have any significant influence.

Thomas
 
Thomas said:
Just a couple of historical pointers —

Christianity's heritage is two-fold:
Salvation history in the Hebrew Tradition;
Philosophy in the Hellenic Tradition.

There is a great distinction between Greek mythology and Greek philosophy — the latter had rendered the former largely redundant — and the 'Greek fathers' to a man belonged to the latter camp.

But the Fathers of the first two centuries were largely Hebrew-influenced, if not straight converts. The foundation of faith had been well established before philosophy began to have any significant influence.

Thomas
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What about the buttsecks?
 
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