Scriptural Paradigm
The scriptural paradigm was the time when Christianity spread in Europe mainly due to 4 main factors:
Lordified deities were feared because of their many human failings. One never know when one of them they might get angry and have to be appeased. So having a single deity having a clear way of being made right with him was very desirable.
Dualism having some "other" which could be blamed and hated for all one's problems is very appealing to about half of humanity. But to be fair, at least Christianity had the teachings of Jesus about love to temper this (unlike other scriptural religions).
Core theology was an easy to understand commercial exchange. If a person believed the right way and did the sacraments then they would be rewarded with salvation.
The Christian church was the only literate organization left after the fall of the Roman empire and literacy was needed by rulers with pretensions of empire. Many rulers forced Christian conversion on their subjects just to gain access to this literacy and be seen as the "good" guy fighting the evil others.
Western dualist religions assume the universe will have a violent ending and seek to escape from it.
The Purpose of Life Under Dualism Is To Escape
(March 14, 2025)
Western Dualist Religions (after 500 BC Zoroastrianism) - To be saved from humanity's inherent sin and the end time apocalypse. Creation of the material realm was a random accident which has separated humans from the perfect and good divine realm. Therefore humans need to rejoin the Divine by becoming good. This is done by rejecting everything of the evil material realm as much as possible and following divine laws (Judaism, Islam). Alternately, because we can't fully reject the material realm, find a divine lord who will save you from from the material realm instead (Christianity).
Eastern Dualist Religions (after 500 BC Zoroastrianism) - To escape being reincarnated into the material world. Creation of the material realm was a random accident which has separated humans from the perfect and unchanging divine realm. Therefore humans should seek to rejoin the Divine by becoming like the Divine (oneness) by becoming changeless themselves. Do not desire or be motivated by anything. Their meditation practices focus on mental stillness instead of awareness like Pagans. (example, Buddhism).
Epistemology is one of the 3 main parts of philosophy.
Dogmatic Knowledge Of The Scriptural Religions Compared with Pagan Perceptheistic Knowledge
(March 15, 2025) Related to assumptions about reality are assumptions about how to learn about that reality. These are:
Dogmatic Theistic Knowledge - All of reality can be known in common by a community. The physical realm can be known by observation and experiment. The spiritual realm can be known dogmatically via a religion's sacred text or institutional tradition (assumed to be divinely revealed). The religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and lordified Paganism belong to this paradigm as either Monotheism or Polytheism.
Druid Perceptheistic Knowledge - Only the physical/material realm can be known in common by a community leaving spiritual knowledge as personal knowledge. Personal knowledge is mystical knowledge based upon perceptions and feelings, hence the name Perceptheistic. Perceptheistic deities can be perceived either as people or as clusters of powers. Deities can be one or many. A person may use different divine models at different times depending on what provides the best connection. Historical Druid culture is perceptheistic.