The Greeks and Christianity

Version 1.2.6b4 of 16/1/2021-8:17 a.m.

"Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses. We should get rid of it as quick as we can." -- Author Arthur C. Clarke, Popular Science, Aug. 2004

inside Orthodox church lighting candles
(Source: The Greek Observer)

Christianity was (supposedly) introduced to the Greeks by Paul The Apostle when he visited Athens during one of his visits to Greece and was allowed to preach in the Aeropagus, according to Acts 17:16-32 ([1])[1]. When the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers heard of resurrection of the dead, their reaction was sneering and a good dose of sarcasm[1] (Acts 17:32).

In addition to Athens, Paul visited many different cities of Greece, such as Corinth, Thessalonica and Berea, but Paul's doctrine did not quite find fertile ground until Constantine (The "Great") ([2]) reverted to Christianity and made the new doctrine the official religion of the Roman Empire ([3]).

Of course, it would have probably been impossible for this emperor to do this, unless the dogma had either been silently propagated behind everyone's back's for 200-300 years throughout the entire empire or some sort of force was used. The problem was that Greece was now part of the Roman empire[2] and it really had no say or choice on the dogma's spread, because the descendants of The Ancients were now more of a minority to the vast domain of the Roman Empire at around 300AD[3].

Although some major Christian apologists and church fathers were of Greek origin, the dogma itself remained a completely foreign import to the Ancient Greek Spirit and as such, I feel that it needs some careful justification in lieu of some famous modern tradition, which, for better or worse, inherently ties the (whatever remaining) Greeks with this religion.

Today, modern Greece is officially a "Christian" nation, so a certain assimilation must have occurred during these early (and later) years with most historians thinking that the assimilation that took place was that of Christianity assimilating the (remaining) Greeks.

In reality the assimilation that took place was the Greek language assimilating the Christian dogma instead, as the language had reached its developmental peak and was now (then) a viable tool for the dogma's further expansion. Witness the more "authoritarian" Koine-Greek New Testament versions.

The linguistic assimilation happened naturally and in a benign way, but there was another assimilation that happened unnaturally and by force. The conversion of the local populace to Christianity through violent persecution[18]. This is not so well known, but anyone with sufficient access to the first church council synod writings and decrees, can examine the writings of the then "Christians" with respect to those who wanted to preserve Hellenism and the Ancient Greek Spirit[4]. The "Christians" went so far as to torture people in unimaginable ways, sometimes in worse ways than those of the inquisition, giving them the option to "convert or die". All this, in addition to the massive destruction of buildings, monuments and Greek temples, labelled as "pagan" and thus dangerous[5] at the time of Justinian, for example. The more famous remnant of these actions is the actual banning of the Olympic Games, for hundreds of years, until they were resurrected in modern Greece, in 1896, after the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire.

In addition to the extensive and methodical forceful coercion, several (modern and not) dissertations also attempted to reconcile many elements of the Ancient Greek philosophy and Spirit with the new Christian dogma and indeed some have done so, quite successfully[6].

Although some of the more famous Ancient Greek philosophers and scientists such as Anaxagoras, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle etc. were not really atheists in the modern sense of the word[7], this tenuous connection was implicitly raised and manipulated to make it look like the Ancient Greek Spirit was a major precursor of Christian Theism, as much as ridiculous this is.

The important point here is that an explicit manipulation was performed by some of the church fathers, who tried to "justify" the Christian dogma on the basis that The Ancients were "sort of" pre-confirming it, with their stances/philosophies.

The above is of course a major travesty. The Greeks were never obsessed with the metaphysical side of The Universe, precisely because they had science of the highest level at their disposal, which explained just about everything. Science which allowed for example Archimedes to do such things as elementary integration of non-elementary curves[8] or to calculate the volume of the Earth and the distance between Earth and Sun and science which allowed Aristarchus of Samos to present a heliocentric system[9] and predict solar eclipses.

The point of all this is not to present a grand parade of Ancient Greek scientists and philosophers who knew pretty much science to the highest standards that their age and times allowed, rather, to make a very simple point: Similarly to how today, when our science has reached comparable levels of expertise, we don't consider ridiculous religious positions as intellectually-developed/advanced, we cannot consider this grand nonsense, called the Bible and Christian dogma to have affected in the least, minds, people and nations who had performed such incredible feats of science, like The Ancient Greeks. Plainly put: Advanced scientific societies do not need religious dogmas, except, possibly, for entertainment purposes.

Therefore, an impasse is reached: Since today we, as descendants of the Ancient Greeks, call ourselves "Christians" (officially or otherwise), either we are not the descendants of the Ancient Greeks or a major joke has (and is) being played on our backyard. It may not be an exclusive, either/or, mind you. I believe that a mixture of both has taken place: There is a continuous lineage of certain genes between modern Greeks and their ancestors which can be verified using biology for a large part of the Balkans[10], so the joke theory appears to weigh a little more: A certain "dumbing down" of sorts has occurred with modern Greece[11], which was the result not only of the natural deterioration or assimilation, but also the result of an explicit attempt by the Jewish memeplexes who initiated and propagated this totally dangerous plague, called Christianity. Most notably, the work of Saul of Tarsus.

I am not an atheist, but the Christian doctrine along with the other two "Abrahamic" religions, Islam and Judaism, is the most nauseating, disgusting, abominable and virulent meme creation I have seen, ever in my life and in all of history. It's so disgusting in fact, that even the memeplexes[15] who created it and initiated it and later caused its methodical spread, have been rejected even by the Jews themselves. The Christian doctrine is like a persistent, recurrent and virulent plague or disease of weaker minds, hence it can be used as the ultimate weapon by power-hungry people. And that's exactly what it was used for, throughout history. It destroyed and subjugated The Ancient Greek Spirit[18], replacing the Scientific Method and the advances of the Ancient Greeks with the abominable illogic of the faithfully sub-ordinate, the common average idiot, the weak, the cripple and slavish and threw scientific thought backwards for at least for 1,000 years.

The colossal stupidity of this virulent doctrine is becoming even more evident and persistent today as a function of time, since no single person has ever escaped Death since its inception, despite the supposed Jesus' words to the contrary. Yet, people continue to hope for "eternal life" and continue believing its nonsense, despite having not one iota of evidence for its existence. The believers of this doctrine, believe in a fraudulent lie, voluntarily. Tells you something about the "intelligence" of the doctrine's followers.

As a Greek (whether a true or a bogus[16] descendant of the Ancients), I feel insulted, disgusted, nauseated and severely damaged[23] from being raised up in a country which calls itself Greece[12], yet officially adheres and teaches its people this doctrine of fraud, lies and mythical fairy tales called "Christianity"[13][14][15], which originated in a foreign nation with a barbaric history and theology of lies, mysticism, magic, fraud, masochism, misogyny and misanthropy, which worships the bloodthirsty tyrant anti-Hellenic[19] non-existent[20] desert volcano god called "yhwh"-Jehovah-yaouway, who supposedly decides to sacrifice his own son, Yeshuah[21] who taught that his followers can be saved through some sort of semi-cannibalistic/vampiristic blood ritual of drinking his blood and eating his body[22]. Even omitting the ritualistic aspect of it, the simple atonement theology of Christianity is totally absurd, ridiculous and contradictory.

The Christian doctrine has transformed most of the population of modern Greece into a nation of subservient, god-fearing, illiterate idiots and morons Matthew 5:3 (whose original Greek literally translates as "blessed are the mentally challenged/idiots"), who now confuse "tradition" with this judeo-christian pseudo-philosophical excrement and actually feel proud(!) being part of it, considering parts of it their own tradition!

"Christian Greek" is an oxymoron to true Greeks[17], as is Greek of any absurd religion imposed on free-thinking logical and scientific minds.

Notes

  1. Emphasis on "supposedly", because it's hard to ascertain, at least using modern historical standards, what's fable and what's fact in the Bible. Some such 'facts' already sound dubious: The Unknown god inscription: Had the Ancient Greeks had such an altar to begin with, with such an instription, they would have spelled it as: '(Τοις) Αγνώστοις θεοίς', rather than: '(Τω) Αγνώστω θεώ' like Paul claims in the Koine version of Acts. Greeks were aware that other cultures had many and different gods, so it's unlikely for them to have favored just one. So Paul likely changed the phrase to singular and omitted the rest of the epigraph which mentioned gods of Europe, Africa, etc., like on altars in Athens and in other cities dedicated to unknown gods: "Τοις Θεοίς Ασίας, Ευρώπης και Αφρικής, Θεοίς Αγνώστοις και Ξένοις (Pausanias, "Attica A', 1,4)." - "Diis Asiae et Europae et Africae, diis ignotis et peregrinis" (Holzner). In any case, after the alleged talk at Aeropagus, the Athenians after hearing about 'ressurection of the dead', dragged and kicked Paul out of Athens without further ado.
  2. After its fall to the Romans in 147 BC.
  3. Nobody knows the exact dynamics of the spreading of the dogma on the Greek peninsula itself, but it's pretty safe to assume that the remaining Greeks eventually were assimilated by it because of some obvious strongholds, such as the Greek language and culture which were dominant throughout the Empire.
  4. See for example the surprisingly accurate movie Agora by director Alexandro Amenabar.
  5. Famous church Fathers, for example, like John the Chrysostom, used such harsh language (Greek) against the Greeks and their works in favor of the new church, modern historians would cringe and be baffled and disgusted. Such personae are considered today in Greece as major "saints" and contributors to modern Greece's "culture", whereas in reality they were the worst kind of traitors Hellenism has ever known or seen. Their accusative and negative writings (Greek) have been suppressed by the modern churches, so the average Greek is mostly unaware of them. John Chrysostom writes: "If you look at the internals (of the Greek thought) you will see, ash and dust and nothing healthy, but an open grave is the larynx (of the Greek Philosophers), everything is therefore full of excrement and puss, and all their dogmas are full of worms... Such is what Greeks gave birth to and proliferated, taking from their Philosophers... We, however, do not resign from our battle against them...". (Memorandum to saint John the Apostle, Speech Ξ', 59.369-370)
  6. For example to the point where The Ancient Greek Platonic Logos([3]) of the Greeks found its "proper" niche and incarnated (became flesh) as the image of the invisible God. In that sense, some aspects of the Ancient Greek philosophy have been made to even prophesy the coming of Christ(!). All this, in addition to the forceful coercion which took place anyway, as if it wasn't enough, so an alternate method had to be found which would somehow justify the Christian mindset.
  7. Socrates, for example, would mock both theists and atheists alike, if their arguments were ridiculous. On the other hand, the church used (and continues to use) some of Aristotle's arguments.
  8. Tens of hundreds of years before Newton and Leibnitz formalized calculus.
  9. Hundreds of years before his idea was re-presented and re-introduced as a new theory by Copernicus, who was given credit for it.
  10. The interested reader is welcome to find out more, for example, here.
  11. Not only in modern Greece, but everywhere.
  12. The biggest hubris of them all, being Greece having a flag with a cross on it. That's like making a public statement to foreigners that whoever lives here certainly ain't Greek, by far (although some have argued that a square cross is not necessarily a Christian symbol).
  13. Via an assorted community of Christian monks, priests, deacons and episcopes, who continuously pester the public sector's monetary resources and politics and continuously "dumb-down" the public, again via an assorted array of fake, hating, anti-Hellenic and disgusting philosophies, anniversaries, dates, saints and memorials which have evolved from the Nazarene sect. Todate, not one modern Greek politician has ever step forth to address the problem of the Nazarene sect and church in Greece, reinforcing the idea that modern Greece is basically governed by traitors.
  14. What's also particularly funny is that major academic institutions traditionally offer (and have been offering) degrees in "theology". That's a bit like offering degrees in jewelry, baking or UFOlogy. How can one fail for example, doing a Ph.D. in Biblical studies? I have no idea. Having written some Christian "dissertations" (or articles which rely on Christian doctrine) in the Writing section, ultimately proves that similar can be written easily by your average idiot without too much effort.
  15. Matthew 5:44: "But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (In a selectively chosen context, since elsewhere we read: Luke 19:27: "But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them - bring them here and kill them in front of me."). That's like a double bonus: Your enemy (i.e. the memeplexes who created this atrocious dogma) harms you and gets away with it. Why not push it a bit further? Why not give your enemy gifts while he is at it, harming you? In a world where survival is of the utmost importance, "forgiving" your enemy is like admitting defeat beforehand and agreeing to withdraw from the game of life. The stupidity of the people who accept this tremendous absurdity as a philosophy of life, then, must necessarily be colossal, for they eliminate themselves voluntarily from the game of life pool, making it easier for their enemy to prosper and proliferate at their expense. Of course, if the latter doesn't apply to you, then the doctrine can apply Luke 19:27 for a change: like it has done in most cases of medieval persecution for dissidents, atheists, witches, magicians, loons and generally dissagreeable folk or for warring excuses. Some terrific interpretational flexibility this doctrine, has.
  16. Probably bogus, since the name my parents game me is of Jewish origin (Ioannis=John=Yochannan=יוֹחָנָן).
  17. "I am Greek, as such I cannot be a Christian" - Apollonius. "I am Christian, as such I cannot be Greek" - Genadios Scholarios.
  18. For a brief summary, consult Hellenic Cultural Genocide I, Hellenic Cultural Genocide II and HOW CHRISTIANITY WAS IMPOSED IN GREECE (in Greek. You can translate it with Google).
  19. Old Testament: Against Greeks. New Testament: Jesus' opinion about Greeks: akin to 'dogs'. Orthodox Sunday Liturgy (Greek): Curses & Damnations against the Greeks.
  20. Psalms 21:9-10 and 2 Samuel 22:8-9. If existent, definitely an insanely flawed - or plainly insane consciousness or at least insane at the time "it" concluded its formal nature, perceiving itself as something which it was not, devising a ludicrous plan of salvation aiming at possible behavioral error-correction. The simplistic absurdity of the whole subsequent plan however- for people to be saved through sacrificing one of its own facets to be symbolically “consumed” by its followers (knowing that it wouldn’t die, as already immortal and eternal i.e.), only reveals that it is either of very low intelligent capacity or simply totally bonkers, betting its horses on the traditional sacrificial gullibility of its followers (thinking perhaps that this facet did indeed die and offered benefit of some sort to the believer?). That's akin to a physicist gaining information advantages about the physical state of the Sun by “consuming” (swallowing?) a piece of paper with a differential equation that describes the Sun’s plasma state in Physics, say[22]. And to appease future believers of prior faulty/inconsistent behavior by perceiving “him” as a “God of love” (because of genius and loving foresight in delivering us from hell through such an absurd plan, no less(!)). Hence Jesus’ wrath against the “your true father, the devil”. The latter is virtually synonymous to Jesus stamping out YHVH as an insane, evil and absolutely terrrifying consciousness, something which would necessarily be true, if “he” existed. Thank goodness I don’t think this being exists, or we’d all be in big trouble, already. In the unfortunate case he does, I’d like to think he’s probably already locked-up away somewhere very very far away from this planet banging his head against the void in Erebus.

    Jehova Devours
    Angry Jehova devours his enemies
    (Source: Apollonios blog spot)

  21. To be fair, Jesus never addressed the aforementioned being by name AS his father. There are no named references to YHVH in the NT, except El-ohim and that’s "my God", not "my Father"="Abba". If we presume the physical existence of Jesus, then we have to assume that his father existed too, since he constantly addresses him. But the question of who really was his father, remains unresolved, unless one accepts that he went nuts at some point after adolescence and thought that his father was somebody different from Joseph. Looks suspiciously like the whole connection between this being and Jesus (read: the inclusion of the entire OT (Torah -Tanakh) into consideration along with the NT to form the Christian dogma) was a conveniently tailored bandwaggon hijack attempt to authorize Jesus into divine position using the already existing power of YHVH (More details on the frivolous nature of the Bible's tailoring(s) throughout the ages and for a fairly good collection of contradictory elements found therein, consult this Quora profile). Jesus saves:
  22. That's very close to abstract Cannibalism. The idea is simply ridiculous: It's similar to the idea that a Mathematician for example can acquire insightful knowledge about whether the number Mn=2n-1 is prime or not, by 'swallowing' (how?) the symbol 'Mn'(!). One would be tempted to think that the 'true' followers of Jesus are the mosquitoes(!) (which, indeed, drink the blood of their hosts/'masters' in order to survive).
  23. More on this Quora answer.

References

  1. "Bible Gateway" (online).
  2. Wikipedia's "Constantine The Great" (online).
  3. Wikipedia's "Constantine and Christianity" (online).
  4. Wikipedia's "Logos" (online).