The late Stephen Hawking´s 2010 Grand Design attempt to smear Christianity, his "Greek successors," with his shallow characterizations of history accompanied his dismissal of Philosophy and attempt to define God as unnecessary. In doing so, he demonstrated the unscholarly projection fallacy of Scientism, the misapplication of "Science," which in fact is the popularized and misleading term for Scientific Philosophy. In the process of digging back to Thales of Miletus, I bumped into material on the Samothrace Temple Complex, which co-existed with the Eleusinian Mystery Rituals, among some others which require familiarizing for me. Looking at Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotles, and other angles, I was reminded of an interesting insight and treated to further angles of a profound issue: the presentation of ancient Greek Philosophy has neglected classical Greece´s spiritual-religious side. Usually it´s simplified in terms of the Greek myths and the popular polytheistic temples to the likes of Zeus, Apollo, Athena, and Aphrodite.
As popular temple worship was concerned, my research into Greek Empirical Philosophy turned up that the Greco-Roman physician Galen (d. ca 216 AD) had entered his profession because of his father having a vision of Asclepius, the god of medicine, who instructed him to make his son a doctor. That training was conducted at the temples to Asclepius.
Consider the Oracles. Some months back, I was researching a King Croesus (d. ca 546 BC), the King of Lydia, from some phrases, "Rich as Croesus." Croesus, held to have Greek ancestry and based in the area of Turkey, attacked the great beneficent Cyrus of Persia of biblical renown, with some purported accounts of contact between Croesus and Thales of Miletus, the pioneering ancient scientific philosopher. Earlier, however, was the account of Croesus´ omen test of the Oracles of Greece and regions, at least. Croesus wanted a prophecy of what he would do on a certain specified day. On that day, he stewed two meats, one being tortoise. He found the answer of the Oracles of Delphi and Amphiaraus to be trustworthy. Herodotus (d. ca 425 BC/BCE) and Pausanias (d. ca 180 AD/CE) noted his gifts adorning the Oracle´s Delphi Temple of Apollo.
Other references of note come from the life of Alexander the Great (d. 323 BC). His father King Philip II of Macedon, is said to have met his mother Olympias, an orphan, at the Samothracian Mystery Rituals. Meanwhile, Alexander, a student of Aristotle for some time until age 16, is known to have visited an oracle near Egypt, where the priest called him the living god Ammon, which he combined for himself as Zeus-Ammon. After the Battle of Porus in India, Alexander had coins printed with him wielding lightning bolts. One archeological find is of a Temple to Athena in Priene dedicated to Alexander.
In the life of the renowned Plato (d. ca 347 BC) son of Ariston, his father was said to have tried to have his way with the woman to be his mother, Perictone, but because of a vision of Apollo, held himself in check and later married her. In Plato´s work Meno, he tells Meno that the young man would gain insight into Socrates if he would participate in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Elsewhere, Plato also refers to the Samothracian Great Gods Mysteries, and views related to the Orphic Mysteries.
Before Plato in the life of Pythagoras (d. ca 495 BC) son of Mnesarchus, there is the correspondence to the name of Pythagoras and the name of the Delphic Oracle Pythia, who Iamblichus (d. 325) refers to as prophecizing the birth of a son "full of wisdom." Joost-Gauthier reports that Pythagoras studied in Egypt, and Riedweg suggests recognizing similarities related to the rites of the Orphic Mysteries and the Dionysus Mysteries. One concept associated with Pythagoras is "metempsychosis," which refers to an individual´s immortal soul in reincarnation. Empedocles (d. 434 BC) wrote a poem referring to Pythagoras recalling his past incarnations. Pythagoras went on to the Greek colony at Croton in today´s Calabria, Italy, where he established an ascetic community, where he nevertheless had a wife and three kids. The discipline at the community is credited with helping them win a war against a nearby colony at Sybaris in 510 BC. After the victory, non-community members proposed a democratic constitution. The proposal was rejected by the Pythagoreans, leading to a deadly uprising that finished the ascetic community. 
Empedocles, mentioned earlier, is interesting to note because of his being influenced by Parmenides (ca 590-420 BC), credited by scholar J Palmer with founding Metaphysics as distinct from Theology, with his ideas of changeless Being. Xenophanes (d. 475 BC) is also considered an influence on Empedocles, and as a critic of the anthropomorphic Greek gods as projections, referred to one supreme, unknown, "spherical" god and is sometimes considered the first Greek monotheist.
Empedocles valued the Orphic Mysteries. According to Bertrand Russell, Pythagoras reformed the Orphic ideas, as the Orphic ideas reformed the Dyonisean ones. Russell also noted that Socrates accepted Orphic doctrines, but not their superstitions. Orphic doctrine differed from popular ancient Greek religion in three ways, 1)humans have divine and immortal souls, but condemned in a "grievous circle" of reincarnation of "metempsychosis" 2) ascetic living and secret initiation rites were prescribed to guarantee a release from the "grievous circle" and communion with the gods, and 3) were founded on sacred writings about the origins of gods and human beings.
The Derveni papyrus was a Macedonian document found in 1962 and attributed to someone in the philosopher Anaxagoras´ (4th century BC) circles. Considered the oldest surviving manuscript in Western literature, it is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem. In part, it describes the Orphic poem describing that "(Nyx) Night gave birth to Heaven (Uranus)...." 
Again and to conclude, these are observations as part of my ongoing research into ancient Greek spiritual and religious practices, spurred by the late Stephen Hawking´s anti-religious comments and unscholarly Scientism in his 2010 book The Grand Design.
What thoughts do you have regarding ancient Greek Religion, Philosophy, your own spiritual-religious interests, and their relationship to modern issues in Religion?
As popular temple worship was concerned, my research into Greek Empirical Philosophy turned up that the Greco-Roman physician Galen (d. ca 216 AD) had entered his profession because of his father having a vision of Asclepius, the god of medicine, who instructed him to make his son a doctor. That training was conducted at the temples to Asclepius.
Consider the Oracles. Some months back, I was researching a King Croesus (d. ca 546 BC), the King of Lydia, from some phrases, "Rich as Croesus." Croesus, held to have Greek ancestry and based in the area of Turkey, attacked the great beneficent Cyrus of Persia of biblical renown, with some purported accounts of contact between Croesus and Thales of Miletus, the pioneering ancient scientific philosopher. Earlier, however, was the account of Croesus´ omen test of the Oracles of Greece and regions, at least. Croesus wanted a prophecy of what he would do on a certain specified day. On that day, he stewed two meats, one being tortoise. He found the answer of the Oracles of Delphi and Amphiaraus to be trustworthy. Herodotus (d. ca 425 BC/BCE) and Pausanias (d. ca 180 AD/CE) noted his gifts adorning the Oracle´s Delphi Temple of Apollo.
Other references of note come from the life of Alexander the Great (d. 323 BC). His father King Philip II of Macedon, is said to have met his mother Olympias, an orphan, at the Samothracian Mystery Rituals. Meanwhile, Alexander, a student of Aristotle for some time until age 16, is known to have visited an oracle near Egypt, where the priest called him the living god Ammon, which he combined for himself as Zeus-Ammon. After the Battle of Porus in India, Alexander had coins printed with him wielding lightning bolts. One archeological find is of a Temple to Athena in Priene dedicated to Alexander.
In the life of the renowned Plato (d. ca 347 BC) son of Ariston, his father was said to have tried to have his way with the woman to be his mother, Perictone, but because of a vision of Apollo, held himself in check and later married her. In Plato´s work Meno, he tells Meno that the young man would gain insight into Socrates if he would participate in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Elsewhere, Plato also refers to the Samothracian Great Gods Mysteries, and views related to the Orphic Mysteries.
Before Plato in the life of Pythagoras (d. ca 495 BC) son of Mnesarchus, there is the correspondence to the name of Pythagoras and the name of the Delphic Oracle Pythia, who Iamblichus (d. 325) refers to as prophecizing the birth of a son "full of wisdom." Joost-Gauthier reports that Pythagoras studied in Egypt, and Riedweg suggests recognizing similarities related to the rites of the Orphic Mysteries and the Dionysus Mysteries. One concept associated with Pythagoras is "metempsychosis," which refers to an individual´s immortal soul in reincarnation. Empedocles (d. 434 BC) wrote a poem referring to Pythagoras recalling his past incarnations. Pythagoras went on to the Greek colony at Croton in today´s Calabria, Italy, where he established an ascetic community, where he nevertheless had a wife and three kids. The discipline at the community is credited with helping them win a war against a nearby colony at Sybaris in 510 BC. After the victory, non-community members proposed a democratic constitution. The proposal was rejected by the Pythagoreans, leading to a deadly uprising that finished the ascetic community. 
Empedocles, mentioned earlier, is interesting to note because of his being influenced by Parmenides (ca 590-420 BC), credited by scholar J Palmer with founding Metaphysics as distinct from Theology, with his ideas of changeless Being. Xenophanes (d. 475 BC) is also considered an influence on Empedocles, and as a critic of the anthropomorphic Greek gods as projections, referred to one supreme, unknown, "spherical" god and is sometimes considered the first Greek monotheist.
Empedocles valued the Orphic Mysteries. According to Bertrand Russell, Pythagoras reformed the Orphic ideas, as the Orphic ideas reformed the Dyonisean ones. Russell also noted that Socrates accepted Orphic doctrines, but not their superstitions. Orphic doctrine differed from popular ancient Greek religion in three ways, 1)humans have divine and immortal souls, but condemned in a "grievous circle" of reincarnation of "metempsychosis" 2) ascetic living and secret initiation rites were prescribed to guarantee a release from the "grievous circle" and communion with the gods, and 3) were founded on sacred writings about the origins of gods and human beings.
The Derveni papyrus was a Macedonian document found in 1962 and attributed to someone in the philosopher Anaxagoras´ (4th century BC) circles. Considered the oldest surviving manuscript in Western literature, it is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem. In part, it describes the Orphic poem describing that "(Nyx) Night gave birth to Heaven (Uranus)...." 
Again and to conclude, these are observations as part of my ongoing research into ancient Greek spiritual and religious practices, spurred by the late Stephen Hawking´s anti-religious comments and unscholarly Scientism in his 2010 book The Grand Design.
What thoughts do you have regarding ancient Greek Religion, Philosophy, your own spiritual-religious interests, and their relationship to modern issues in Religion?
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