Quote Originally Posted by Jacques de Imbelloni View Post
Other neo pagan temples around the world:
Speaking of pagan, belief in the Ancient Greek Gods is not paganism. Hellenists do not identify as pagan as Pagans are country dwellers. The Hellenic religion was invented in the cities and its Gods were City Gods and the actual people who built the cities in the first place.

Christianity also prospered in the urban environment, not in the country. There the people were more conservative and held the old religion. Pagans were non-Christian. Urban was Christian (and Greek). And those Urban forces is what Constnatine tried to win over, and make thier religion the state religion.

The Ancient Greek religion, like other ancient religions was based on hero and ancestry worship. Hero worship came first. They honored their dead ancestors and their greek roots.

Being Greek Orthodox is also about honoring being Greek and remembering I am Greek. The only reason I am Greek Orthodox is because I am Greek. As a Greek I am expected to marry within the Greek church and become baptised.

Baptism with water was used by the Pythagoreans hundreds of years before jesus. It is part of the Hellenic religion from the time of Eumolpus in 1335 BC.The theory behind infant baptism is to keep the tradition alive no matterwhat. Greek Orthodoxy is about keeping the tradition of being Greek irrespectively of whether you're religious or not.