paganism
Article
paganism is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between September 20, 2024 and December 17, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “hope as one of the primary distinguishers between Christianity and paganism”; “typical replacement-level paganism”. It most often appears alongside Christianity, London, 2016 US Presidential election.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: September 20, 2024
- Last seen: December 17, 2024
Appears In
Related Pages
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- Christianity (2 shared issues)
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- London (2 shared issues)
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- 2016 US Presidential election (1 shared issues)
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- ACX Grant (1 shared issues)
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- Adam (1 shared issues)
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- AI (1 shared issues)
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- AI Art Turing Test (1 shared issues)
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- Aleister Crowley (1 shared issues)
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- Alfred (1 shared issues)
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- Alfredo Parra (1 shared issues)
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- Andreesen (1 shared issues)
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- anime (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
Here we are introduced to one of Chesterton’s core themes: hope versus fate. Chesterton sees hope as one of the primary distinguishers between Christianity and paganism, buddhism, eastern philosophy in general, and materialistic determinism. We see this same dichotomy in another of Chesterton’s great poems, Lepanto, where he has Muhammed, enthroned in glory in the Muslim paradise, say:
55: The “fastest growing new religion in the world” is the cult of Santa Muerte (St. Death) in Mexico, with perhaps 29 million followers since going public in 2001. I find it hard to determine its appeal - the entire content of the religion seems to be “if you give sacrifices to an idol of a female skeleton, she will grant your prayers”. It’s not just that this is boring - it’s that it’s absolutely typical replacement-level paganism, and I’d always thought that Christianity beat paganism because it was inherently more attractive. Yet the Mexican youth are turning away from the stodgy boring Catholic Church en masse to worship Santa Muerte. Why?