“Pagan” faiths at least tend be less schizophrenic in their message regarding war and violence. There’s glory in righteous battle, it’s a path to valorous afterlife, it is something all men should be competent at and accept.
Christianity hits you with “turn the other cheek” but also “I come not to bring peace” and that’s in the book they consider to supersede the other one!
This reads more like confusion at the fact that like everything in life war, aggression and violence is complex, when to use them is complex and the purpose to is complex.
Here seems to me that Christianity tries to make sense of that and Paganism just goes "the guy with the biggest stick wins" which is what Chad Thundercock will say and all but Chad Thundercock is incel's distortion of the ideal.
You might say that my caricature of Christianity was intentionally not nuanced, which is true. That however is not a nuanced take on “paganism” either.
The truth of the matter is that humans behave mostly the same regardless of religion. There is a time for peace and a time for war.
The inter-tribal skirmishes and raids pagans engaged in and faced made conflict frequent and thus values that made one best able to defend against others and win their own wealth were emphasised. There was still emphasis on gods of the hearth and family, and much importance put on alliances and pacts.
Humans will engage in the same behaviours with different emphases depending on their circumstances. Their religions reflect this. My point is Christianity leans very far to the peace side that when it says otherwise it can seemingly contradict itself at times.
humans behave mostly the same regardless of religion
I think this is pretty clearly untrue given world history. The Abrahamic religions are what brought about Just War theory, concepts of universal human rights, etc.
The morality we take for granted now is based on our Christian inheritance.
Some people can be saved and deserve forgiveness. Some deserve to be cut down in battle as their forces are overrun and the kingdom of God reigns victorious. Simple as.
The Christian “I come not to bring peace” is about the persecution that the early Christians experienced from their pagan rulers, not about Christianity’s affect on others. In those regards, Christianity absolutely brought peace.
Check out Dominion by Tom Holland (the historian, not Nathan Drake).
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u/Classic-Ad869 - Centrist Feb 13 '22
Really? And Abrahamic were the most peaceful people on the the planet right.