Halloween's Pagan Themes Fill West's Faith Vacuum

Originally posted by GringoViejo
Halloween almost completely died out in the early 20th century, until companies realized they could market it better and make more money off of it.

edit on 21-10-2011 by GringoViejo because: (no reason given)

Agree...............

Pagan?

No,just another BILLION dollar money making scheme. Like Christmas.

The Halloween business is absolutely monstrous. Americans will spend $6.9 billion in 2011 on everything from candy and costumes to decorations. That's an increase of 16% from what consumers said they would spend last season.
Here's another shocking survey finding: The average consumer intends to spend $72.31 on Halloween products this year. That's $6.03 more than last year.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 41 million trick-or-treaters last year between the ages of 5 and 14. It's unknown how many cranky old people sat on their front porches screaming, "Get the heck off my lawn!"
This year, seven in 10 Americans plan to celebrate Halloween. That's the highest level of participation in the survey's nine-year history. I assume the other three prefer gardening. Or giving trespassing kids the evil eye...

LINK

reply to post by muzzleflash


Last time I checked, Greek and Roman gods were part of history, and ancient.

So what is it you need help with here?

reply to post by sonnny1


You bring up a good point here.

It is a massive holiday, with almost half the American population celebrating. That would be a lot of pagans.

We keep them all hidden in underground bunkers and let them out once a year.

Originally posted by CodeRed3D


This journalist makes a startling revelation. We know the education system has been removing religion from the lives of our youth. Have you ever asked why?

You should. Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

The Bible often symbolizes governmental institutions as exotic beasts. In the book of Revelations it is not surprising the prophecy states the whole world will be worshiping the beast. It's a lot to chew on.

www.bloomberg.com

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow, and here I always thought religion was all about having a way to control of the masses.

That it was a way for the ruling class to control the bahavior of the unwashed.

Go against the word of god and you go to hell, give your life blindly to faith and go to heaven.

Huh.

Originally posted by CodeRed3D


This journalist makes a startling revelation. We know the education system has been removing religion from the lives of our youth. Have you ever asked why?

You should. Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

The Bible often symbolizes governmental institutions as exotic beasts. In the book of Revelations it is not surprising the prophecy states the whole world will be worshiping the beast. It's a lot to chew on.

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Actualy you have that in reverse, you wrote. "Remove religion and you have the perfect slave".
I say you must break the chains of bondage that keeps us as slaves to ideas that never truly existed. They only existed to pander to the few elite that wanted power over the masses. That filled there coffers with peoples hard earned money, to glorify themselves above all others. Because get this. They hear gods voice.

I repeat they hear voices..When you hear voices it usualy cause you got a screw lose, your nuts, you see things which arn't really there, you make stuff up but you believe it so much it becomes real. So if you hear voices it has to be your made up gods voice. And the People must be told..with hellfire and damnation all ye that are evil and love sin..etc.etc.etc...haven't we all heard that line of falsehoods before.

I remember seeing as a kid this religious TV program where the men of the cloth sort of speaking were litterally selling little packets of oridary soil and proclaiming it to be "Pieces of heaven" for 50 dollars a bag. The worst part was these religous con-men were raking in the $$$ from the faithful.

So we've shown 3 things that religions do to the people:

1. They bind your thought patterns, so you never achieve your full potential, they keep you as slaves in the chains of bondage. Chain controlled by petty men wanting power over the masses.

2. They hear voices. enough said.
3. They rip you off of your $$$ cause youve been programed for thosands of years that the old beared guy in the sky who has lightning that comes out his arse, will strike you down if you do not bow down, worship and prey and give him your money.

Why would an all powerful god need money? Do gods like to let gold coins drop through there etheric fingers and get the happy foot dance? Why would an entity that is supposed to evolved to the point of being all powerful even care what humans did in there own world, there own nation, there own faimlies, there own lives. To be a so-called god you would have gotten to the point in your own evolution that the frail human emotions would no longer mean anything to you. To be a real god you would have no need for EGO...

There is the crux of the problem. All religions of the world, past , present and probably future is this. In there gods words the must: " Bow down , pray, and worship ME..on and give my emissaries all your gold. If not I will send floods, famines, wars, prestilences, eat your first born, and burn you with my atomic breath".

To me anyone that would expose that is full of human EGO, and is not evolved to be a true god if that exists at all.

So when you say stuff about pagans which I am one of for many a year, do be careful what you preach, considering your god is nothing but a petty con-man with delusions of grandur which keeps you slaved in the chains of bondage. Which you freely give..

::just shakes head:: and you think youve awoken...

::gives out this weeks Face Palm Award to the OP::

You also win the big cookie award..

Originally posted by ColoradoJens

Originally posted by CodeRed3D


This journalist makes a startling revelation. We know the education system has been removing religion from the lives of our youth. Have you ever asked why?

You should. Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

The Bible often symbolizes governmental institutions as exotic beasts. In the book of Revelations it is not surprising the prophecy states the whole world will be worshiping the beast. It's a lot to chew on.

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I find it ironic in the extreme you would say religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought and dialect. You do not know history.

CJ

I'll attest that religion is not only the symbol of freedom, but it offers freedom to whoever decides to apply their dedication to their paths. If we don't study history, we remain as children in our own lives, but history is far, far more complicated than our present-day lives - the nimbus collective of billions upon billions of completed lives, their interactions and unknowns, their rewritings and truths, all the unknown members who possibly led spiritual lives yet were not celebrated in modern thought, nor capitulated to our future by any great publication or records.
How much of history is lost to us? So how can you "know" history? Clarification on your statement, please.

The world exists for the education of each man. There is no age or state of society or mode of action in history, to which there is not somewhat corresponding in his life. Every thing tends in a wonderful manner to abbreviate itself and yield its own virtue to him. He should see that he can live all history in his own person. He must sit solidly at home, and not suffer himself to be bullied by kings or empires, but know that he is greater than all the geography and all the government of the world; he must transfer the point of view from which history is commonly read, from Rome and Athens and London to himself, and not deny his conviction that he is the court, and if England or Egypt have any thing to say to him, he will try the case; if not, let them for ever be silent. He must attain and maintain that lofty sight where facts yield their secret sense, and poetry and annals are alike. The instinct of the mind, the purpose of nature, betrays itself in the use we make of the signal narrations of history. Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts. No anchor, no cable, no fences, avail to keep a fact a fact. Babylon, Troy, Tyre, Palestine, and even early Rome, are passing already into fiction. The Garden of Eden, the sun standing still in Gibeon, is poetry thenceforward to all nations. Who cares what the fact was, when we have made a constellation of it to hang in heaven an immortal sign? London and Paris and New York must go the same way. "What is History," said Napoleon, "but a fable agreed upon?" This life of ours is stuck round with Egypt, Greece, Gaul, England, War, Colonization, Church, Court, and Commerce, as with so many flowers and wild ornaments grave and gay. I will not make more account of them. I believe in Eternity. I can find Greece, Asia, Italy, Spain, and the Islands, — the genius and creative principle of each and of all eras in my own mind.

www.emersoncentral.com...

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by sonnny1

 

You bring up a good point here.

It is a massive holiday, with almost half the American population celebrating. That would be a lot of pagans.

We keep them all hidden in underground bunkers and let them out once a year.

Most Pagans I know,celebrate Samhain,and laugh at the mockery of Halloween.

Religion has always been the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberal thought, and dialect. Remove religion and you have the perfect slave.

Oh Sweet Lord of Hell,
this is the most hilarious statement I have ever read on ATS.

reply to post by CodeRed3D


I whole heartedly applaud the removal of any and all specific religions from our school curriculums. I support the idea of teaching a comparative religion class in High School as an elective, though.

Education in high school should be about gaining the skills needed to survive in our modern world. It should not be a platform for people to push religious views. If you want that, go to a private school that is dedicated to such things.

Originally posted by sonnny1

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by sonnny1

 

You bring up a good point here.

It is a massive holiday, with almost half the American population celebrating. That would be a lot of pagans.

We keep them all hidden in underground bunkers and let them out once a year.

Most Pagans I know,celebrate Samhain,and laugh at the mockery of Halloween.

You know a lot of Pagans?

I've only met 2 in my life, and I really think they were faking it.

Originally posted by AGWskeptic

Originally posted by sonnny1

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by sonnny1

 

You bring up a good point here.

It is a massive holiday, with almost half the American population celebrating. That would be a lot of pagans.

We keep them all hidden in underground bunkers and let them out once a year.

Most Pagans I know,celebrate Samhain,and laugh at the mockery of Halloween.

You know a lot of Pagans?

I've only met 2 in my life, and I really think they were faking it.

Have you ever met somebody who isn't a Muslim, Christian, or Jew? Then you met a Pagan. "Pagan" is a Judeo-Christian term that just means "non-Judeo-Christian". The word "pagan" doesn't denote any specific religion. At all. Buddhists, Shinto, Wicca, and Cuervoism are all "pagan".

reply to post by AGWskeptic


Wife and I are pagan.. although we don't do anything special for Samhain, given that it is a bit irrelevant to us as city dwellers. We do celebrate Yule, though.

reply to post by AGWskeptic


Yes. They are actually down to earth people,The ones I know. They dont press their beliefs,and believe in the sanctity of life.

reply to post by sonnny1


All the pagans I know, myself included, love it.

Originally posted by sonnny1
reply to post by AGWskeptic

 

Yes. They are actually down to earth people,The ones I know. They dont press their beliefs,and believe in the sanctity of life.

I was mostly joking.

But I do find it funny that so many christians have no idea that all of their major holidays were stolen from Paganism.

My favorite is the spring fertility ritual becoming Easter. Since eggs and rabbits never did make sense as ways to celebrate Jebus rising from the dead.

reply to post by AGWskeptic


Actually the egg was stolen from pagan tradition too, the ritual being you buried an egg in the ground during Ostre in order to bring fertility to the person planting it.

whoops, nevermind, I see what your saying.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Thats awesome.


Its probably the one time,amongst all the christian co opted holidays,that pagans are NOT demonized.(no pun intended)

My friends beliefs are more on a spiritual plane,or they so tell me,so maybe thats why they are not into it.

reply to post by Eye of Horus

Actualy you have that in reverse, you wrote. "Remove religion and you have the perfect slave".
I say you must break the chains of bondage that keeps us as slaves to ideas that never truly existed. They only existed to pander to the few elite that wanted power over the masses. That filled there coffers with peoples hard earned money, to glorify themselves above all others. Because get this. They hear gods voice.

Religion teaches us to remove selfish desire, and replace it with love of God, or the Creator, or the Holy Trinity, or the universal conciousness. In this, one is working towards a foregoing of self, indeed this includes your athema of EGO and replaces it with a worshipful sense of the Almighty, without whom we would exist as dust, without the breath of life which made selfishness even possible. From my own religion of Christianity, I gather that we are slaves already, either to ourselves, and to sin, or to righteousness, or a higher moral set of values and ideals which embody good sense and neighbourly conduct, proper weights and measures, an abscence of double-mindedness in decisions, and a genuine respect not only for the good efforts of others, but for the trials and challenges which face them. In all good sense to finish that, we are complex beings, with many levels and layers which ought to exist in harmony with each other, before we can consider ourselves competant and somehow fulfilled, or complete.

Does accepting help in this task gall you, or promote a sense of personal worth as compelling as an ego, from which base attitude complexes and obsessions might spring? Does the sin of pride, including intellectual or emotional pride strike you as a valid notion which must be acknowledged between us as a poor influence? It is listed as the primary sin before God, whom you profess not to believe in I'll note. Is it irrelevant to note that safety, defence and security are not selfish and it is considered wise to CARE for ONE'S POSSESSIONS? Too many turn immoderate and take phrases out of turn, when it comes to religious statements. Much of religion is to turn the extreme which could potentially become evil ambition, and change it into a narrower course of activity which benefits each other, and thus will be found pleasing before God. Swords to plowshares, with-holding evil activity, cease and desist, being bold when the time is right, approaching with confidence, not pride, accepting serenity when things are over our head...

Can you see that religion also teaches us COMMON SENSE which we love in our lives, and does us no harm to practice and preach? What's this angst about history, where you would chain us to the capracious designs of those who claimed their kingdom's religion as a tool of control? They're long gone. They don't affect our present day or worship. They exist as object lessons, understandings for or against wisdom working in our lives, and as encouragement for our against out daily course of action.

As for hearing God's voice : God corrects those he loves. Unless you seek to understand, and to seek, you may never find.

I repeat they hear voices..When you hear voices it usualy cause you got a screw lose, your nuts, you see things which arn't really there, you make stuff up but you believe it so much it becomes real. So if you hear voices it has to be your made up gods voice. And the People must be told..with hellfire and damnation all ye that are evil and love sin..etc.etc.etc...haven't we all heard that line of falsehoods before.

I've a lot to say about that, but I hope it won't be to an ignorant prig who holds such views that I speak to about it. I hate to break it to you, but telepathy exists, other beings Can and Do communicate to each other in unseen ways, and I have many testimonies to say that I've spoken with others this way. Will I pass your sanity tests? Most assuredly - I don't think I rate more than a 0 on the psycho chart, have a decent high iq, and assure you, assure you I am entitled to my beliefs, my emotions, and my past experiences.

I remember seeing as a kid this religious TV program where the men of the cloth sort of speaking were litterally selling little packets of oridary soil and proclaiming it to be "Pieces of heaven" for 50 dollars a bag. The worst part was these religous con-men were raking in the $$$ from the faithful.

Perhaps they were offering more than you knew in return for the almighty dollar. There are other currencies than money, currencies which are undervalued but not overlooked. The dismal is that whoever makes a million is ultimately in for disappointments, when their time, privacy, dignity, and wished-for associations become swallowed up by the ways of the world. Were they offering books or services in return? Were they appealing to understanding hearts, or to cold and bitter hearts who could not be reached? Were you forced to comply, or held hostage by their words in a "give or else" situation? Have you ever seen a commecial before, and do you know how to rersist that "temptation to buy"? Then what's the big grief? Free speech man.

So we've shown 3 things that religions do to the people:

1. They bind your thought patterns, so you never achieve your full potential, they keep you as slaves in the chains of bondage. Chain controlled by petty men wanting power over the masses.

Read a critique on Theosophy, then Christianity. One counters the other, and the truth is dissolved between through disinformation. To approach the spiritual from a critical, scientific perspective is to approach it as if demented Swedenborg claims. I agree, and further, are we in an age of superstitions where our thoughts are bound, without philosophy or experience to test us and encourage our growth? All men are controlled by the thoughts that circle their helms, and their own wises, their intuitions, their past goads, their emotional coils, their best-ahead advice. At other times the solution is counter-intuitive. Whatever controls our thought-influx into our minds deserves recognition, and to place emotional supremacy over our thoughts is the same as giving the key to the city to foolishness, and bidding wisdom farewell. Stay more circumspective, tolerant, and rationalize from a more ... emphatic basis for others.

2. They hear voices. enough said.

From you, anyway.

3. They rip you off of your $$$ cause youve been programed for thosands of years that the old beared guy in the sky who has lightning that comes out his arse, will strike you down if you do not bow down, worship and prey and give him your money.

Perhaps God will Simply Not associate with those who commit blasphemy. Think about it.

Why would an all powerful god need money? Do gods like to let gold coins drop through there etheric fingers and get the happy foot dance? Why would an entity that is supposed to evolved to the point of being all powerful even care what humans did in there own world, there own nation, there own faimlies, there own lives. To be a so-called god you would have gotten to the point in your own evolution that the frail human emotions would no longer mean anything to you. To be a real god you would have no need for EGO...

Money is for us, a facilitator of trade, and a common value to rely on - on a regional basis anyway. Too many manipulations distort the value from community to community, so that the same tree trunk is $1000 in China, and $100 in Canada. How much time are you going to waste in the comparasion, and how much would you impress the value of money upon us, over say, our precious time?

There is the crux of the problem. All religions of the world, past , present and probably future is this. In there gods words the must: " Bow down , pray, and worship ME..on and give my emissaries all your gold. If not I will send floods, famines, wars, prestilences, eat your first born, and burn you with my atomic breath".

A very, very crude take. There's no absolution for God in your books, or mercy, or room for a higher understanding to explain it differently. I wonder what will happen when you eventually run foul on the shoals of your own dispositions, and realize all was deferred justice, an account you built up and up until the points of understanding, or a court of angels so decided your nature was firmly designed, and without a doubt built in determined obstinancy against the truths which were so readily understood beyond? Aye Scrooge, you will see.

To me anyone that would expose that is full of human EGO, and is not evolved to be a true god if that exists at all.

Where does the ID and the SUPEREGO fit in your account? Or are all men and women pariahs to your understanding?

So when you say stuff about pagans which I am one of for many a year, do be careful what you preach, considering your god is nothing but a petty con-man with delusions of grandur which keeps you slaved in the chains of bondage. Which you freely give..

Ignorance must seem like bliss.

::just shakes head:: and you think youve awoken...

::gives out this weeks Face Palm Award to the OP::

You also win the big cookie award..

Oh lay it down dramaqueen. Everyone is in their own stage of evolution. Don't step on the hard-working ant, and perhaps something bigger than you won't take their own tiny step in the wrong direction.

Originally posted by sonnny1

Originally posted by GringoViejo
Halloween almost completely died out in the early 20th century, until companies realized they could market it better and make more money off of it.

edit on 21-10-2011 by GringoViejo because: (no reason given)

Agree...............

Pagan?

No,just another BILLION dollar money making scheme. Like Christmas.

The Halloween business is absolutely monstrous. Americans will spend $6.9 billion in 2011 on everything from candy and costumes to decorations. That's an increase of 16% from what consumers said they would spend last season.
Here's another shocking survey finding: The average consumer intends to spend $72.31 on Halloween products this year. That's $6.03 more than last year.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 41 million trick-or-treaters last year between the ages of 5 and 14. It's unknown how many cranky old people sat on their front porches screaming, "Get the heck off my lawn!"
This year, seven in 10 Americans plan to celebrate Halloween. That's the highest level of participation in the survey's nine-year history. I assume the other three prefer gardening. Or giving trespassing kids the evil eye...

LINK

edit on 21-10-2011 by sonnny1 because: (no reason given)

Hilarious post.

With 7 out of 10 participating, I'm a little surprised the average is 72 dollars. I thought it would have been higher.

reply to post by CodeRed3D


Hi I just thought I would let you know that Paganism is a religion. So if religion is necessary for freedom, what exactly is wrong with Paganism?