
How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion - MiriamWeiner
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190602-how-iceland-recreated-a-viking-age-religion
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bluntfang
Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being
coopted by white supremecists. I find this stuff fairly attractive as someone
with Scandinavian heritage, but it seems like I've been overtaken in the space
by racists and fascists.

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notacoward
> Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being
> coopted by white supremecists.

So have other religions. Millions of people use Christianity (especially the
evangelical sort) as an excuse for their white-supremacist behavior. The
intersection of religious and ethnic-supremacist beliefs even exists among
some Muslim and Hindu adherents. I'm sure I could find other examples, despite
the fact that most religious people practice their respective faiths with
peace and respect toward others.

So I'd say don't feel bad about it. The more counterexamples there are, the
weaker the white-supremacists' excuse becomes. If you want to honor your own
heritage without denigrating others', more power to you.

~~~
magduf
My viewpoint is different: religion is a way for a group of people to make
themselves feel different and special ("we're the chosen ones!"), and a
natural consequence of that is racism/supremacism.

As for "most people" practicing their faiths with peace and respect toward
others (meaning those not following the same faith), I'd say that most of
history contradicts that claim.

~~~
gpvos
That would go against the teachings of at least Christianity, and as far as I
know also Islam and Hinduism. In practice, this is indeed an easy trap to fall
into, humans being what they are.

~~~
magduf
What teachings of Christianity? Throughout the Middle Ages, Christians were
happy to burn people alive if they weren't Christian or weren't the right kind
of Christian even. Are you going to try to convince me now that all these
countless religious leaders throughout many centuries were wrong, and that I
should instead listen to you, some random person on the internet who likely
isn't even a devout Christian, on what the "correct" teachings are?

It's the same with Islam. I can easily find many Islamic religious leaders who
will happily tell me that violence to promote their brand of Islam is good and
right. Are you even a Muslim? No? Then why should I believe you over them
about what the "correct" teachings are?

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inflatableDodo
> _The Ásatrú faith also celebrates Old Norse mythology and its pantheon of
> morally ambiguous deities – gods such as Odin, Thor and Loki – that came to
> Iceland during the Viking Age, when the island was settled by Norwegian
> famers looking for new pastures. These deities were worshipped across this
> ‘land of fire and ice’ until the year 1000, when, under pressure from the
> influential Norwegian crown, the country abandoned heathenry and adopted
> Christianity._

The subtext from the BBC is interesting, the Viking gods are 'morally
ambiguous deities', the arrival of christianity is summarised by 'the country
abandoned heathenry'. Is worth noting that heathenry is still a synonym in
english for 'uncivilised'. This is presumably to stand in contrast with some
notion of the supposed moral certainty and civilisation of the Abrahamic god.
The BBC should really be above playing team sports with religions, but I guess
they just can't help themselves.

~~~
geofft
But those gods _are_ morally ambiguous: they're not everything-I-do-is-right
like the God of Abraham (in any of the religions that worship him). It's an
accurate part of the news and implying that Loki is a paragon of virtue would
be misleading people about the subject.

And "Heathenry" is a term used by practitioners of this faith.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathenry_(new_religious_movem...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathenry_\(new_religious_movement\))
If it's got a negative connotation, well, that's the limits of working in a
colonizer language.

~~~
brodo
The god of the old testament is morally ambiguous too. The christians defined
the evil aspects away and made humanity responsible for all evil in the world.

~~~
Andrex
The religion itself presents God as doing good; pagan religions don't have
such framing, thus the classification "morally ambiguous."

~~~
magduf
>The religion itself presents God as doing good

Does it? I seem to remember a part in the Old Testament where the Abrahamic
god orders his followers to commit genocide against some other tribe. How is
that "doing good"?

~~~
tsimionescu
The point is that those events, in the context of Christian thought, are seen
as good - their god is telling his people to clear some unbelievers. Christian
dogma maintains that their god and his commandments are fundamentally moral,
that they are the very base for objective morality. In Christian thought, by
definition, anything that their god wanted to happen is good.

Norse religions, on the other hand, make no such claims about their gods.
Within the context of Norse beliefs and religious moraloty, Odin has done evil
things, Loki has done evil things, etc. That is why, within their own system
of beliefs, the gods are morally ambiguous.

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oytis
Well, apparently it's not passed down, it's being reconstructed (started in
the 70s unsurprisingly).

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JoeAltmaier
Sounds like fun (pageantry, costumes, songs, ceremonies)! Similar to the SCA
or Renaissance Faire. But maybe not a serious religion?

