Ellinais, or the Sacred Society of Greek Ancient Religionists, has begun holding prayers to Athena (ancient Greek goddess of knowledge) and is protesting the Greek governments moving of statues from the Acropolis to modern museums. The ancient Greek religion was apparently made illegal in the fourth century, however police did not prevent the practitioners from holding their prayers.
The practitioners even claimed some divine evidence of their ceremony:
“Is it a coincidence that rain started falling when the ceremony started and ended at the same time as the ceremony? I think not,”
However, one could just as easily claim that the Christian God was pissed after being upstaged some 1700 years later.
The ceremony featured some 200 practitioners. It appears the atheists can no longer use the “no one believes in Zeus anymore” argument.
The Olympics are more secular than ever
Friday, August 15th, 2008There’s a somewhat misleading article in the Salt Lake Tribune entitled “Religion continues to be part of Olympics,” when really, it’s not.
They quickly run through the origins of the Olympics in ancient Greece, and how athletes would attempt greatness to please Zeus, and all the warring city-states would hold a truce over the Olympians. And that when the Olympics were re-instated in 1894 by two frenchman they retained the original Greek ceremonies.
They also talk about how Hitler tried to convince the world his Aryan athletes were of the Greek ideal, and how the Salt Lake City Olympics featured a temple in the background and the current Beijing Olympics feature a Buddhist temple.
This isn’t religion though.
When the athletes go to perform, they may thank God, Allah or Buddha, but they are not required to. The 100m dash doesn’t end with a prayer, and the floor competition doesn’t end facing Mecca. The Olympics are an almost ideal demonstration of secularism today.
What I mean when I say this is that athletes of any faith or lack thereof can compete, there are no religious references during the ceremonies (i.e. no mass prayer before the race), and the Greek religious symbols are mere relics. Although these symbols (the torch, the march in, etc.) were religious to the Greeks, they are more an homage from us to them for starting such a noble competition.
So although religions still exists around the Olympics and for many Olympians, it does not have any support from the IOC.
Tags: Greeks, olympics, religion, secularism, Zeus
Posted in Commentary | No Comments »