Now you ask how I define “doctrine”??? The same way my friend Mr. Webster does, which I've given you above, which you agreed with. Therefore your statement makes no sense whatsoever, none. (and you make such silly comments as this when I asked you to explain something, “I was going to, but it would be like trying to explain a sphere to a Flatland-er”.
“There simply was nothing like that in paganism.”
You've never heard of the Hindus, with their elaborate system of gods and triads and myths? You've never heard of the Babylonians with their priests and temples and sacrifices? Shall I go on? They certainly had their ideas on what was “right belief/doctrine”, “orthodoxy” and what was not. Just read what happened to Daniel and his friends.
And you compare ME to a “flatland-er”. Amazing!
They’re not doctrine in the required sense, I don’t think — they’re a pastiche of myth and legend and folklore and poetry and tribal identity and epic “history” and custom and ritual and syncretism. They express the innately human impulse to worship greater forces, but they never achieve the force and clarity of a Christian creed, much less a systematic theology.
lol, and ancient Egypt— they took doctrine to new highs. Or lows I guess in burial practices