The pagan mindset is what is needed, not paganism itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Being_a_Pagan
Keep in mind that this book isn't a perfect expression of a purely paganized, post-Christian worldview.
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The pagan mindset is what is needed, not paganism itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Being_a_Pagan
Keep in mind that this book isn't a perfect expression of a purely paganized, post-Christian worldview.
He charts the rise of the modern Pagan movement from its small beginnings in a north London suburb in the late 1940s to today. Or rather ten years ago, when it was published. Using various statistical means he estimates the number of Pagans in the UK as 100,000 and it has certainly got a lot bigger in the last ten years, though I only have anecdotal evidence for that.
The point I was making is that how Christians act can and does change, and so your claim that Christianity has "shown itself" to do this or that holds no water in light of a little historical research. Anyway, I won't post in this thread further because (as is usually the case) one post in and the point I've made has whizzed over your head. Honestly, it's like trying to teach a dog to use a Nintendo.
Maybe you should research history a little bit before you make such utter BS claims. The crusades defended Europe from the Islamic threat multiple times; as well as protecting the sovereignty of some respectable nations from the Turks. Hungary and Austria are great examples.
The knee-jerk reaction that many people have with Christianity is, in many cases, based upon the faulty premise that the dastardly Christians:
1) Follow an alien religion;
2) Came and "stole" pagan heritage;
3) Preach unmanly, unhealthy, and uncivic doctrines, such as a morbid fascination with sin and suffering, etc. as well as the idea that faith trumps things like, say, common sense and reason. Then there's the turn the other cheek teaching, or any other number of tidbits that defy common sense; the good things that Christianity teaches, tolerance of others, or faith in marriage, can be found in other belief systems, and often in a nobler fashion that have little to do with the divine (i.e. Stoicism, Confucianism, and so forth).
The only one I really regard as true is #3.