Greek State Recognizes Paganism as Religion

Greek Reporter ^ | Philip Chrysopoulos

[nickcarraway]

Greek Pagans are granted legal status as polytheism is officially a religion in Greece, according to the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE).

YSEE is a religious organization claiming they work to restore the indigenous religion of Hellas. The organization put out a statement saying that Greek polytheism has received legal status in Greece.

Until now, Greek Pagans did not enjoy religious freedoms such as the right to buy land in order to build houses of worship nor could Pagan priests perform marriage ceremonies.

Now the Greek State, through a decision of the Greek Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs, recognizes the Hellenic Religion as a “Known Religion,” according to paragraph 17, the only form of recognition for a religion in Greece. The paragraph includes the permission to build a temple as well as the right of public liturgies of any recognized religion.

Established in 1997, YSEE estimates that some 2,000 Greeks practice the Hellenic Ethnic Religion and another 100,000 have “some sort of interest.”

The non-profit organization is a founding member of the European Congress of Ethnic Religions (ECER) and hosted its seventh Congress in June 2004. YSEE has also been member of the European Union’s action program to combat religious discrimination.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Apollo is the Greek name for the Semitic Baal, false god of the earth, known as Hubal to the Arabs, the moon god.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Available symbols for V.A. headstones.

[pepsionice]

The general history to the word “pagan” goes back to the Roman era but has a funny twist.

It was a word or slang that you’d use for civilian-turned-soldier who was considered incompetent, and had nothing to do with religion. At some point, the use of the word shifted around and was used for non-Christians who saw Christians being considered soldiers of God and incompetent. At some point, the Christians turned around and used the same slang word for non-Christians (incompetent). If you weren’t a Christian then you had to be a pagan worshiping the wrong God.

[Jemian]

This is straight from hell.

[Mark17]

This is straight from hell.

The great falling away?

[Vaquero]

You forgot the Scientology Double-Cross

[vladimir998]

“Apollo is the Greek name for the Semitic Baal, false god of the earth, known as Hubal to the Arabs, the moon god.”

What’s your source for that? Usually Apollo is thought to be derived from a Hittite or Minoan deity. And Apollo is always connected with the sun rather than the moon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo#Sun

[vladimir998]

“The great falling away?”

This new paganism (which in Greece is the old paganism in a new package) has been going on for decades. The great falling away will concern the Church itself more rather than those who left it decades ago.

[I want the USA back]

I guess the Turkish occupation of Greece stripped the Greeks of their soul, mind and conscience.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Until now, Greek Pagans did not enjoy religious freedoms such as the right to buy land in order to build houses of worship"

What about this?

[Telepathic Intruder]

Yes, Apollo is associated with the sun. Sun worship is also closely associated with Satan worship. In Revelations Apollyon is also the king of the bottomless pit.

[vladimir998]

Actually his name is Abaddon. Apollyon is a transcription/translation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaddon The name “Apollyon” and the early forms of “Apollo” were derived from different words. Only later in Greek did “Apollo” become associated with the word for “to destroy”.

And I still have not seen a shred of evidence for what was originally said about Apollo in this thread. I suspect I won’t see any such evidence presented either.

[Telepathic Intruder]

I’ve no idea why this is so important to you. I’ve only heard that the Greek Apollo is associated with the Semitic Baal. The two being so important to their respective cultures, its seems like a logical connection.

[x]

Apollo was the sun god.

It's not likely he was also a moon god.

[Telepathic Intruder]

But we’re talking completely different cultures. The moon represented in importance to the Arabs what the sun did to the Greeks. The dew created at night in the arid climates of Arabia is the chief source of water to much of the plant life that grows there. The Arabs also lived a more nocturnal existence than in western cultures of the time.

[vladimir998]

“I’ve no idea why this is so important to you. I’ve only heard that the Greek Apollo is associated with the Semitic Baal.”

I understand you’ve heard it. But what is the evidence for that claim? Is there any? Any at all?

I can’t say that there was no late conflation of the two gods and their symbols in the Near East. Creuzer claimed that in his famous (and seriously flawed book) Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen, but that book was (as I said) seriously flawed and now almost 200 years obsolete in information. And what Creuzer claimed only touched on late developments (if even true) in the Near East and not the origins of the cult of the god Apollo in Greece.

The only other source I can find that would make the same claim you made is a Swedenborgian one - and that’s enough to make me EXTREMELY hesitant to assume it is correct: http://www.swedenborgstudy.com/books/C.Th.Odhner_Mythology-Greeks-Romans/26.html on Swedenborg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Swedenborg

“The two being so important to their respective cultures, its seems like a logical connection.”

So hot dogs must actually be associated with eating real dogs because the two things are so important to the respective cultures of the U.S. and South Korea, right? And not only that but both names contain the word “dogs” so they must be not only related but one must be derived from the other. Before you complain please realize that what I just wrote here is very similar to what you’ve been saying about Apollo.

Facts are important. Truth is important. They should be important to you too.

I’m just saying. . .

[Reily]

I thought “pagan” originally was a Latin “slang” word for rural person. Basically the equivalent of “hillbilly”.

[Telepathic Intruder]

I take it you’re a bit more into mythology than I am, then. Understandable. The only “facts” about it that matter to me is that all pagan mythologies are dubious if not outright Satanic in origin, even the ones that seem enlightened on the surface. They all lead back inevitably to the snake in Genesis.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Rather, I should say pagan religions. There are pagan mythologies that also include things like Noah's flood. But the origins of pagan gods are viewed as demons and fallen angels in the Bible. Here is the sun god of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake. Not unlike someone else we know from the garden of Eden: