Position versus Dispossesion

We tend to think of religions and mythologies as being separate. The Greeks had gods that they worshipped, but, because we no longer actively believe in those gods, -there are no Zeus Temples that I know of- we tend to demote these faiths to legend, myth, and rumor.
It is a sad fact, in my estimation that this is the case. Not because of what has gone before, but for what is to come. It means that those things that we actively believe in now, will one day be marginalized to myth. Dare I mention it, this may already be occuring.
Nevertheless, our modern mentality disengages us from feeling any kind of nostalgia for these fallen faiths. Oh, sure we make our tributes to them, but even in these few cases, we probably don't even recognize what we are doing, or why we are doing it.
As a result, we go about, touting our current faith, and leaving the past faiths behind.
However, if we are to truly understand why we do what we do, we must understand the history of our beliefs.
As I pointed out in a previous blog, many of the holidays, and rites in Christian celebrations, for example, have their roots in 'pagan' ritual or festival. We do ourselves an injustice to be so quick to dismiss the validity of our ancestors and their faiths.

To this point, I hold a course of humble, albeit nostalgic respect for those peoples who held these mythologies as their faith. I don't mean that I worship their gods, but simply respect the processes behind the evolution of those gods, and in general, the environments, cultures, hopes and fears that helped them come about. It seems rather easy to suppose that our many current faiths are here because they are somehow ordained to be here, thanks to history. However, looking back, the tiniest movement of fate, and Christianity may never have left the Middle East and spread. One doesn't stop to think that it is merely a gossamer strand of causes and events which has allowed history to progress in its current form. The present is only one of millions of possible outcomes that could have been. I realize that this is a somewhat flimsy argument, but it stands that we may now be worshipping Zeus or Odin, rather than those deities we currently hold to be our own. It is with this fragility in mind, that I say we should at once embrace our former beliefs as real and important to our current identities, and remember that our current faith, no matter how potently we believe, may grow as a result of this adopted mentality.