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Single Idea 9287

[filed under theme 29. Religion / A. Polytheistic Religion / 2. Greek Polytheism ]

Full Idea

Giordano Bruno maintained that the magical Egyptian religion of the world was not only the most ancient but also the only true religion, which both Judaism and Christianity had obscured and corrupted.

Gist of Idea

Bruno said that ancient Egyptian magic was the true religion

Source

report of Giordano Bruno (works [1590]) by Frances A. Yates - Giordano Bruno and Hermetic Tradition Ch.1

Book Ref

Yates,Frances A.: 'Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition' [Chicago 1991], p.11

A Reaction

His beliefs were based on the Hermetic writings. No wonder he was burned at the stake. Atheists now lay flowers at his memorial in Rome. The sixteenth century was when the hunt for alternatives to established religion began.

The 13 ideas with the same theme [early Greek religion, centred on Zeus and others]:

1742 Thales said the gods know our wrong thoughts as well as our evil actions [Thales, by Diog. Laertius]
15659 Purifying yourself with blood is as crazy as using mud to wash off mud [Heraclitus]
1522 It is wretched not to want to think clearly about the gods [Empedocles]
12097 There are as many eternal unmovable substances as there are movements of the stars [Aristotle]
22729 The concepts of gods arose from observing the soul, and the cosmos [Aristotle, by Sext.Empiricus]
9287 Bruno said that ancient Egyptian magic was the true religion [Bruno, by Yates]
14827 The Greeks saw the gods not as their masters, but as idealised versions of themselves [Nietzsche]
7208 Paganism is a form of thanking and affirming life? [Nietzsche]
14864 The Greeks lack a normative theology: each person has their own poetic view of things [Nietzsche]
7348 The Jews sharply distinguish human and divine, but the Greeks pull them closer together [Johnson,P]
20666 Most polytheist recognise one supreme power or law, behind the various gods [Harari]
20667 Polytheism is open-minded, and rarely persecutes opponents [Harari]
20665 Mythologies are usual contracts with the gods, exchanging devotion for control of nature [Harari]