Comments by "Regis" (@Timbo5000) on "" video.

Because they're poor. We don't like including poor and violence-ridden countries in our club, it taints how vain we can be about the West. Some people are even starting to say Mediterranean countries like Italy and Greece are not European. We do what we need to justify our ideas about the West being somehow inherently superior, so we can't have inferior economies/civilisations as part of it. We'd probably sooner accept a country like Japan in the club than Brazil. And it's not race, because a country like Argentina is basically white and they still are not considered European/Western and America is of course not that white (plus I doubt we'd disavow America as part of the west when white people become the minority. We will do so if they ever become poor or violence-ridden however, can't have any country tainting our image of the West).
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@wandanemer2630 We have large-scale war industry type violence, which is seen more as a sign of power than a sign of mismanagement/poverty. I was referring to very high criminal violence in particular, an indicator of a failed state. That is seen as something that does not occur in the west, therefore countries with that level of violence are generally ousted from the club even if they'd technically fit in.
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@Ixiah27 Mentions in Roman documents and such, so no Christian sources. But that wasn't my point. The point is that people often without a doubt assume someone like Plato existed even though all we barely have any evidence for it, yet when it's about Jesus Christ I always see people instantly doubting his existence. Bit of a double standard. Jesus Christ is the only historical figure I ever see comments doubting the existence of, which I think is interesting.
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BARBATVS 89 Christians practically destroyed classical Europe. Rome fell 200 years after the christians had ousted the "degeneracy". You can count yourself lucky that our ancestors revived that "degeneracy" of the classical/pagan times during the Renaissance. European civilisation declined under christianity and only flourished again until a counter-movement took place.
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@Ixiah27 There is more evidence for Jesus' existence than a figure like Plato, more than most historical figures that nobody has any qualms assuming did exist. He existed, but the real question is whether his miracles and claims of being a god were real. You can guess the answer
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BARBATVS 89 If it was in decline already, then closing down philosophy schools, murdering anyone who was a dissident (including other christians), burning books and destroying art surely didn't help.... probably accelerated it, if not outright caused the decline. And about the christian persecution, ancient Rome had freedom of religion with many religions existing among one another, including other pagan religions and judaism. Then the Christians came and while initially they were free like the others, eventually they got persecuted because there were incidents of christians destroying art and disrespecting the other religions. It started with light persecution, but got worse and worse as the conflict got out of hand, ending with christians being murdered freely. And about paganism, I'm talking about European paganism specifically. Not all paganism is the same. In Europe, nature was at the centre of spirituality so good care was taken for it. Old trees and elaborate groves were holy. The idea of taking care for the earth in order to pass it on to the next generation is a very distinctly pagan idea. You reading this into a vague biblical passage that completely is not about this is just an example of how deeply pagan values have intruded christianity by now. This happens a lot and by now it's very difficult to see which values originate from paganism and christianity. Your version of christianity too. Whether you like it or not. Christianity has been too distorted, it's no longer pure, it hasn't been for hundreds of years now. It's a mixture of pagan and christian values. According to the bible all on earth exists purely for humans to use as tools. This is an important factor in how we as societies expanded and got to this highly developed state, with its wealth but also pollution (one of the good elements of christianity, or bad depending on how you view modern society). According to European paganism we humans are subjected to nature and need to respect it. A good example of the christian versus pagan mindset is how we dealt with wolves in Europe. Pagans saw them as part of nature just as they themselves. Christians practically genocided wolves because they were an inconvenience and they almost disappeared out of Europe. To Christians only humans matter and all else exists to serve us; it was all given to us by god to use for ourselves, as the bible states. Pagans value nature as a whole, with not only humans but also other organisms. Natural balance is important to pagans, so they'd never do something like completely eradicate a species because they don't like it. Reduce it, yes, but not eradicate and certainly not purposefully.
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James Registe Ah, definitely could have known the Church would be up to something like this....
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BARBATVS 89 1. I know they follow Christ because they claim to. Christians sin constantly, nobody is without sin. There is no such thing as a perfect christian that follows Jesus impeccably and a "fake" christian that doesn't. Anyone who believes in Jesus as their saviour and attempts to follow his teachings is part of the christian movement. That's really all there's to it. Regarding your justifications of past genocides, you're essentially saying that genocide is good if god commands it, which is very worrying to say the least. By your logic Israel is the promised land of Jews and they'd be justified in systematically genociding any other racial group in an effort to claim the land for the Jews. It's just wrong. This is exactly the kind of thinking that caused the brutal religious wars and oppression in Europe. It's amazing that you don't see this. Genocide is wrong, always. It happened in the past, which was more or less normal back then so I'm not going to single out the Jews as having done something "evil", but accepting that it went like that in the past and today still actively justifying what happened are two very different things. What you're doing is dangerous. If god sees it as his right to take away life just because he gave it and will send most people on earth to eternal torture in hell then I have to conclude that apparently human morality is superior to god's. It's unspeakably cruel and shows a complete disregard for the suffering of others while having no real reason to justify it. It's downright sadistic to do that and I'll support no god that behaves like that. The god that you describe doesn't meet my moral standards. He's supposed to be above us, not below. And catholics are not pagans at all. They're mainly christians, but with pagan elements. The terrible things they did are not grounded in paganism but a twisted view of christianity. Their philosophy is mainly christian for sure. 2. It was a generalisation and you speak of respecting individual animals but that's not what this is about. This is about large-scale philosophy regarding nature and man. Paganism isn't a hippy religion about not killing anything, it is about respecting the general balance of nature. Christianity doesn't promote littering and animal abuse, but it does promote the idea that nature exists for us to tend to as if we own it, as if it was given for us to use. And with that utilitarian view of nature comes a disregard for balance. The balance is unequivocally skewed towards human interests and I think that is wrong. So it's not YOU that I accuse of littering, I say that this mindset causes SOCIETY as a whole to be too human-centered without having regard for the rest. I don't see humans as equals to animals, of course I value our own species more. But I don't see humans as far above animals either, at least not far enough to justify completely disregarding the well being of animals when human interests call for that. Humans are worth more than animals, but humans are also not the only species on this earth that has worth. The christian approach is that animals only have worth insofar they serve our interests. If they don't, then them going extinct is not a problem, even actively contributing to their extinction is not a problem. I believe that's terrible and selfish. Christianity is too centered around humans, it is too narcissistic. We are not so important that it's justified to genocide an entire animal species just for our comfort. I call for balance, for respect, for preservation of nature. You keep mentioning microbes and whatnot but again: this is not about killing animals, it is about the big picture. I eat animals, I kill animals. But I don't want so many to be killed that this upsets the natural balance or causes species to go extinct. Big picture balance. 3. I do put man first, just not to the degree christians have historically done. If there was an existential struggle between humans and wolves and only one could possibly survive, then I'd choose humans of course. But the thing is, such an absolute struggle doesn't exist. We can kill wolves where they threaten our way of life, but respect them when deep in the woods, far away from humans. It's not either/or, it's both. It's balance. Regarding the "spoils of animals" passage, I meant I didn't read into that how killing animals needlessly is a sin. After reading further I understand that it states that after the forests of Lebanon were cut down, they will be cut down. After they killed the animals, the animals shall kill them. And this all happens because they terrorised humans in the area and plundered towns. I don't see how this prohibits the medieval christian practice of killing as many wolves as possible until they are hunted out of extinction deliberately, even deep into the forests. This is not a strawman, I simply state I don't read what you read into this passage, which might just be on me. Christianity presenting an absolute antithesis of heaven and hell, god and the devil and more is absolute. It's not grey. You either enjoy heaven or suffer in hell. God is good, devil is bad. There are no such things in paganism, because there's also no such thing in nature. Nature is both at once. You speak of pagan Egyptians but I already stated before I'm referring to European paganism specifically. Here the earthly life is more important. European paganism is not a death cult, it's a cult of life and nature. It's not centered around living your earthly life just to prepare for the much more important journey afterwards. According to paganism, life on earth is an endlessly repeating cycle of reincarnation. Earth IS heaven in paganism. And that is why it's paramount we take proper care for it; we return, it's our home. It's a drastically different perspective that leads to certain important differences in mindset.
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