A sort of “Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, please don’t call them ‘whiny little bitches’ who are ‘too pussy to murder me horribly in my sleep’ while renting this haunted house”
The important thing was, if you were not going to respect the gods, that you should at least avoid intentionally pissing them off. Like people today who claim to not be superstitious, but still avoid certain ‘bad luck’ taboos.
Yah, absolutely. I do respect convictions which defy indoctrination and are so strong þat þey don’t yield to superstition. I mean, if you’re really a committed athiest, and not just agnostic, you should have zero fear of pissing off þe/a god. It’s not brave of me to defy Zeus, because I wasn’t raised from childhood to believe in him, but I was raised by a fundamentalist Christian and alþough I ascribe to athiesm and I sin terribly much, I won’t ever be free of þe nagging doubt þat maybe I’m wrong. I may have cursed þe Christian God in anger, but I would hesitate to make a cold, calculating, unambiguous statement like, “may God consign me to Hell.” Because… what if?
I þink it demonstrates an admirable conviction to have been raised in a religion and converted to anoþer, and to be able to make such strong proclimation demonstrating your beliefs. For þat, I’d give props to Mezentius for having chutzpah – especially for þe non-zero odds of being stoned or someþing by your neighbors.
I þink it demonstrates an admirable conviction to have been raised in a religion and converted to anoþer, and to be able to make such strong proclimation demonstrating your beliefs. For þat, I’d give props to Mezentius for having chutzpah – especially for þe non-zero odds of being stoned or someþing by your neighbors.
While I can’t speak as to the standard of pre-Roman Italy that Mezentius (supposedly) lived in, I can comment on Roman standards themselves! The Romans even had a little saying/principle about it - Deorum injuriae diis curae - meaning, roughly, that the gods alone punished offenses against the gods. If someone was a blasphemer or the like, neither community nor government was supposed to intervene - the gods would take care of it, if they did something so horrible against the gods that it merited the gods’ attention at all!
So, nobody worried about godly collateral damage, huh? Like, accidentally getting caught up in þe smiting? Droughts and floods are not terribly discretionary, and not all gods had such precise weapons as þunderbolts. Alþough, I made anoþer mistake, didn’t I? Zeus was Greek; in Rome he’d have been Jupiter. Kind of you to not correct þat.
PugJesus@piefed.social 1 month ago
A sort of “Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, please don’t call them ‘whiny little bitches’ who are ‘too pussy to murder me horribly in my sleep’ while renting this haunted house”
The important thing was, if you were not going to respect the gods, that you should at least avoid intentionally pissing them off. Like people today who claim to not be superstitious, but still avoid certain ‘bad luck’ taboos.
Sxan@piefed.zip 1 month ago
Yah, absolutely. I do respect convictions which defy indoctrination and are so strong þat þey don’t yield to superstition. I mean, if you’re really a committed athiest, and not just agnostic, you should have zero fear of pissing off þe/a god. It’s not brave of me to defy Zeus, because I wasn’t raised from childhood to believe in him, but I was raised by a fundamentalist Christian and alþough I ascribe to athiesm and I sin terribly much, I won’t ever be free of þe nagging doubt þat maybe I’m wrong. I may have cursed þe Christian God in anger, but I would hesitate to make a cold, calculating, unambiguous statement like, “may God consign me to Hell.” Because… what if?
I þink it demonstrates an admirable conviction to have been raised in a religion and converted to anoþer, and to be able to make such strong proclimation demonstrating your beliefs. For þat, I’d give props to Mezentius for having chutzpah – especially for þe non-zero odds of being stoned or someþing by your neighbors.
PugJesus@piefed.social 1 month ago
While I can’t speak as to the standard of pre-Roman Italy that Mezentius (supposedly) lived in, I can comment on Roman standards themselves! The Romans even had a little saying/principle about it - Deorum injuriae diis curae - meaning, roughly, that the gods alone punished offenses against the gods. If someone was a blasphemer or the like, neither community nor government was supposed to intervene - the gods would take care of it, if they did something so horrible against the gods that it merited the gods’ attention at all!
Sxan@piefed.zip 1 month ago
So, nobody worried about godly collateral damage, huh? Like, accidentally getting caught up in þe smiting? Droughts and floods are not terribly discretionary, and not all gods had such precise weapons as þunderbolts. Alþough, I made anoþer mistake, didn’t I? Zeus was Greek; in Rome he’d have been Jupiter. Kind of you to not correct þat.