We've all heard how America is "a Christian nation" and is "founded on
Christian principles." But there are many other sources, from outside
the Judeo-Christian tradition, for the moral and social foundations of
our way of life.
I'm starting a Pagan Heritage Awareness Project to try and raise
awareness of the ways in which our culture owes a debt to pagan sources.
I'm taking "pagan" in the broader sense of "outside the Judeo-Christian
tradition," so this project will include atheistic and humanistic
sources as well as more properly pagan and neo-pagan sources.
So far, I'm planning on doing short articles on at least the following
topics:
o The pagan Greek origin of democracy
o The pagan Roman origin of republican government
o The pagan Egyptian origin of monotheism
o The pagan Zoroastrian origin of heaven/hell/devil/resurrection/etc
o The pagan origins of Christian customs, e.g. Christmas trees,
Easter eggs, etc.
o Pre-"Ten Commandments" origins of prohibitions against murder,
adultery, lying, etc.
o The humanist origins of the principle of religious freedom
o The political origins of the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights
o Pre-Judeo-Christian statements of "The Golden Rule"
I'm planning on hosting the Project on the alethian.org website, and I'd
like to invite other interested people to contribute research, articles,
artwork, or other materials. I'm paying for this out of my own pocket,
which isn't too deep, so all I can offer in return is that I will
publish your material with full credit on the web site.
I'd also like to invite people to help me find ways to publicize this
project and try and bring it into the public consciousness. There's a
very strong revisionist tendency in America right now that is trying to
make it sound like the Judeo-Christian tradition is the sole source for
all that's good and right and true, and I'd like to try and balance that
with The Rest Of The Story, as Paul Harvey says.
If you are interested in being part of this project, or if you have any
questions or comments about it, please write to me at the address below,
or just followup to this post.
Thanks.
Mark Nutter
manutter51@alethian.org
http://www.alethian.org/
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