Re: [tied] Chronology of the Christianization of the East Roman Emp

From: matt6219
Message: 16493
Date: 2002-10-22

--- In cybalist@..., CeiSerith@... wrote:
> In a message dated 10/17/2002 2:53:23 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> richard.wordingham@... writes:
>
>
> > Strictly, yes, lol! But isn't Hinduism the closest we now have
to
> > classical religion? I can't think of any closer system not
> > considered whacky in its locales.
> >
>
> Quite simply, no. The current religion that goes by the
name "Hinduism"
> bears, at most, as much resemblance to the strictly Indo-European
Vedism as
> Christianity does to Judaism. Vedism was indeed close to
classical religion.

What was "classical religion", and why should the Vedic religion be
termed as Indo-European, and not Indian ?

> However, it could not be said to have been closer to it than any
other of
> the Indo-European religions.

Please explain further, closer to what ?

I personally find a particularly close
> correspondence between what we can reconstruct of pre-Zoroastrian
Iranian
> religion and Roman Paganism.
Can you please provide a few details on this pre-Zoroastrian Iranian
religion.

I suspect, however, that in this case we are
> dealing with a form of Hindu nationalism, which solves the
question of how
> Sanskrit could possibly be autochthonous by asserting that it was
essentially
> that which others call "Proto-Indo-European," and that the other
IE languages
> are actually descended from it. Along with this goes the idea
that Hinduism
> was the earliest religion, and that it was carried along with the
IE language
> out of India into Europe, thus making European Pagan religions
degenerate
> forms of the Hindu religion which, the theory goes, was maintained
in its
> purity in India. There is so much wrong with this that it is
difficult to
> know where to start.

Do you have any ideas where the European pagan religions and the
Hindu religion did originate from ?

>
> David Fickett-Wilbar
>
> David Fickett-Wilbar