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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Death of various religions
Message-ID: <1595@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Sep-85 16:08:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1595
Posted: Sun Sep 15 16:08:18 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Sep-85 02:47:40 EDT
References: <1699@pyuxd.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 27

In article <1699@pyuxd.UUCP> rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) writes:

>I think the only reason they can "get away" with teaching about ancient
>Greek and Viking religion in schools because (I think there's a joke I'm
>taking this from) there are no more ancient Greeks (or Vikings).  They
>are "treading" on a religion that nobody currently believes in (to my
>knowledge).

You'ld be suprised what some people believe in.....

>What would be interesting in teaching about religions that nobody believes
>in anymore (like these ancient myths) is to talk about why nobody believes
>them anymore, the flaws and presumptions these ancient peoples made in
>designing these religious systems, and how this learning can be applied
>in general today.  That is perhaps the truest way to foster real FREEDOM
>of religion I can think of.  (Probably scares the hell out of some people,
>though.)

Actually, in the case of the Norse religions, the answer is quite simple;
the various Norse people were exposed to Christianity, and decided that it
was the better religion.

I think this is a worthwhile topic for discussion, if we can restrain
ourselves from wishful thinking about whether or not the religions in
question were (or are) true.

Charley Wingate