Armazism

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Armazism (Kartvelian: არმაზიზმის, Armazizmis; ) is a traditional polytheistic religion and way of life, revolving around the Varkan mythology, and embracing Varkan values and virtues. Armazism has been often described as a religion that adapts to scientific discoveries, while holding deep roots of syncretism and holding several mythological concepts from Aetolian, "Armenian" and "Persian" mythologies. As such, Armazism is considered as one of the most scientifically friendly religion on Adonia.

Philosophy and teachings

Armazi

Armazi (არმაზი) is the spiritual and fundamental life force understood by Armazists, giving its name to the religion. It is transcendent, omnipresent and manifests everywhere: organisms, the environment, events, etc. Armazi is the pure primary energy that composes the universe and created it.

Dedamitsaze

In the most mainstream form of the Armazist faith and philosophy, all lifeforms are considered part of one single living planetary being called Dedamitsaze, who is the Mother Goddess. This goddess gives her name to the Kartvelian word for Adonia. In this view, the atmosphere, the seas and the Adonian crust would be results of interventions carried out by Dedamitsaze through the coevolving diversity of living organisms. However, Adonia as a unit does not match the generally accepted biological criteria for life itself: for example, there is no evidence to suggest that "Dedamitsaze" has reproduced, even if in mythology, she has. Dedamitsaze is the most common named used to describe Adonia in Varkana, but Adonia is also understood to describe the deity herself and the concept of humanity's home planet.

Related to Dedamitsaze, the Church of Varkana suggest that organisms co-evolve with their environment: that is, they "influence their abiotic environment, and that environment in turn influences the biota by evolution process". Varkan scientists gave evidence of this, showing the evolution from Adonia of the early thermo-acido-philic and methanogenic bacteria towards the oxygen-enriched atmosphere today that supports more complex life.

The modern scientifically accepted form of the Armazist theology has been called "influential Dedamitsaze". It states the biota influence certain aspects of the abiotic world, e.g. temperature and atmosphere. They state the evolution of life and its environment may affect each other. An example is how the activity of photosynthetic bacteria during Precambrian times have completely modified the Adonian atmosphere to turn it aerobic, and as such supporting evolution of life (in particular eukaryotic life).

Armazism theological scientists usually view the factors that stabilise the characteristics of a period as an undirected emergent property or entelechy of the system; as each individual species pursues its own self-interest, for example, their combined actions may have counterbalancing effects on environmental change. Most scientists sometimes reference examples of events that resulted in dramatic change rather than stable equilibrium, such as the conversion of the Adonia's atmosphere from a reducing environment to an oxygen-rich one, to oppose these views.

Mze

The Church of Varkana venerates Mze (მზე) almost as much as they venerage Dedamitsaze. Mze is the solar deity of the Church of Varkana, the sun itself. While Dedamitsaze is the Mother, who gave birth to life and humanity, Mze is the Father, who gave to Dedamitsaze what was necessary to create life.

There is some debate over the origin of the date December 21 for the cult of Mze. Most theologists and scholars, even in the Church of Varkana, agree that the "Romans" held a festival on December 21 of Dies Natalis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered one." Most scholars assume Mze was meant by the unconquered one. December 25 was commonly indicated as the date of the winter solstice at thetime, with the first detectable lengthening of daylight hours. There were also festivals on other days in December, including the 11th, as well as August. In modern Armazist religion, Pestivali Mze (ფესტივალი მზე) is celebrated, which has similar roots than Christmas.

Life

According to Armazists, life forms in a cycle. They claim that each living being has a soul, made out of pure energy, the Sulitsmindis. For instance, the Church of Varkana has explained their beliefs: "Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting-point. Existence without limitation is Space. Continuity without a starting point is Time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in."

Armazism says that there is no border between infinite small and the infinite big, in the sense that it is only our perspective that alters our vision of those concepts. The Universe as we imagine it was born out of a giant explosion of pure primary energy, that scientists now call the Big Bang, expands from that explosion, and will at one point stop expanding to return to its initial energy form by doing the same path backwards. Thus, Armazism claims that existence or life is cyclic, in a way that there is an eternal return to the initial explosion, which is the perpetual rebirth of the universe. Armazism has also recently declared that each atom is its own universe, where humanity cannot access.

Supporting a form of reincarnation, Armazism advocates an after-life known as Dabruneba (დაბრუნება; "return" in Kartvelian). It dictates that once dead, our bodies return to Dedamitsaze or the Universe. Our bodies decompose themselves and are "given back" to the planet or the Universe. In Armazism, incineration is badly seen as it nourishes less Dedamitsaze than letting our bodies decompose would. Our soul, this primary energy form that make our brains able to function, leaves the body to fly where need be.

Relations with other religions

To its worshipers, Armazism is the only valid religion of Adonia. All other religions are mistaken, where they have the wrong concept of Dedamitsaze and Mze. Other religions' conception of God is the worship of Dedamitsaze and Mze through a mythological concept. But as these worshipers are falsely believing in their mythological concept, without respecting the deities of Dedamitsaze and Mze, they are considered as heretics and can even be labelled as parasites if their actions are deemed virulent.

Demographics

Armazism is a major religion in Varkana. It was followed by 87.18% of the country's population (2012 census). U/C