For example, muslims say that their god is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. christians add upon that benevolent, what about the description of the good god of the Cathars?

This is one of the most beautiful and touching songs i have ever heard. Thank you u/Denon_1 for making me aware of this song and video. Let us all keep the memory and sacrifice of the brave Cathars in our hearts always.

Lyrics

Rising high into the heavens,
I say goodbye to the earth,
in order to find my beloved once again.

Like a divine bird I want to fly,
He gifts me two wings and a sacred name.
There is no one,
no one but him,
my beloved.

There is nothing
of love,
only they are sacred love.

With a gaze that offers
the elevated grace,
from heaven you look into my heart,
crossing thick walls.

Come, calm the immaculate bride.
Close to you I will be,
forever I remain with you.

Some of you might find this interesting:

Near Thessaloniki (Greece), the medieval cemetery at Chalkidona is known as the Bogomil Cemetery. Its surviving stone crosses are a striking reminder of the region’s medieval religious history.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/abandoned-bogomils-graveyard

https://visit-centralmacedonia.gr/en/what-to-do/65/culture/archaeological-sites/860/bogomil-cemetery-in-chalkidona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6onZ_gsk8Q&t=166s

The Cathars had strong historical and religious connections with the Bogomils. One particularly interesting figure in this context is Nicetas, a Bogomil-associated dignitary who is traditionally linked to the Cathar Council of Saint-Felix in 1167, where he is said to have played an important role in the organization of Cathar communities.

At the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, the most advanced culture of medieval Europe flourished in the Occitan counties. The solid Greco-Latin foundation and the effectiveness of Roman law had withstood, first, the Visigothic occupation and, later, the shorter Saracen one. The legacy of classical civilization had been preserved in the Pyrenean valleys in a string of monasteries—Sant Pere de Rodes, Sant Quirze de Colera, Sant Miquel de Cuixà, Sant Martí del Canigó, Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripoll—which had not only safeguarded Greco-Latin culture but also compiled new translations of the classics from Córdoba and Toledo, along with the best of Islamic and Jewish thought. The Romanesque art and culture emerging on both sides of the Pyrenees would be directly linked to the Catalan-Occitan cultural space and environment.

Languedoc and, by extension, all of Occitania therefore illuminated a developed, refined and tolerant society, which was the expression of a civilization—that of the troubadours—more evolved and advanced than that of the French and other northern peoples. Philosophy and other intellectual activities were widely cultivated there. Nobles and knights actively participated, encouraged it and integrated into cultured and literary circles at a time when the northern nobility could neither read nor write. Europe would have to wait until the Renaissance three hundred years later to witness a cultural explosion like that.

There was prosperity throughout Occitania. The strong demographic increase, fertile agriculture, increasing livestock farming and an expanding industry, especially textiles, led to the creation of new towns and burgs. An unprecedented urban civilization developed and spread throughout the Occitan and Catalan cities, fostering an open economy that contrasted with the rural, closed and rigidly feudal economy of the rest of Europe. Growing trade encouraged the permanent exchange of people, goods and ideas between the countryside and the city. Ports such as Narbonne and Montpellier, and cities in the interior such as Toulouse, Nimes and Carcassonne, became centres of great economic activity and wealth-producing centres.

In this context, it is very significant to note how Catharism fit in with the interests of all classes of this evolved Occitan society. The great lords were filled with satisfaction that a religion advocated the suppression of ecclesiastical feudalism and the temporal power of the Church.

The bourgeoisie welcomed with sympathy an interpretation of the Gospel message that, unlike Catholicism, not only did not condemn mercantile and financial activities, but actually encouraged them. In the Cathar dualist worldview, the artisan and commercial world represented good, in contrast to feudal rights and privileges, which represented evil.

However, it would be among the popular classes where the Cathar message would be most successful, by promoting, with the exemplary preaching of good men, the return to the values of primitive Christianity. The Cathar message was the original Christian message of salvation and comfort for the poor, conveyed in a simple, spiritual and understandable language, far removed from the incomprehensible Latin rhetoric used by the distant and bureaucratised Catholic Church of the time.

- Text is taken from https://www.camidelsbonshomes.com/en

Who is Jesus precisely?

Here is an interesting article about Cathars and the Courtly Culture of Medieval times. The article goes in to a great detail of Cathars influence on Courtly Culture of Europe through the Southern France.

Courtly Love is perhaps one of the best ways to describe ideal love, a love that is neither carnal nor restricted, but is simply pure and free. The article also describes the Gnostic beliefs of Cathars and how it relates to the Courtly Culture and Courtly Love as well.

https://aurora-journals.com/library_read_article.php?id=75174

Here is another medieval troubadour song from the 12th century Occitan. It's about Spring, with allegory of the young Spring Queen needing a young man in the dance of life, so she can renew.

Troubadours were poet musicians who lived between the 11th through the 13th centuries. They spoke Occitan, a romance language that can still be heard in parts of southern France, Italy and Spain.

Extract of a Sermon by Peyre Authié (Cathar Perfect), dated approximately 1300 :

Originally our Heavenly Father created all spirits and all souls abode with Him. Then the devil came to the gates of Heaven … But entered not for 1000 years … then he did enter by trickery, and once there, he persuaded the spirits and souls that if they would but follow him down into his world, he would give them great possessions : lands, vineyards, gold, wives and all the other good things of this visible world. Lured by his false words, the souls that were in Heaven followed the devil and fell from Heaven. The Heavenly Father rose from His throne and set His foot on the hole through which the souls had fallen. But the souls, having come down to Earth, remembered the good things that they had lost, and saw the evil that they had found … One of them said to the devil : ‘Why have you deceived us ? You have gained nothing, for we will all return unto Heaven.’ The devil replied that they would not return unto Heaven, for he would make them tunics that they could not take off, in which they would forget all the good and the bliss that they had enjoyed in Heaven.

« These tunics are our bodies. Such is the human condition : the soul is imprisoned in the body.»

Jean Duvernois . La religion des Cathares.

so i did some digging online and found the Cathars where allegedly "anti marriage" is this actually true? if it was true is it true now? and do modern Cathars allow themselves to have relationships and get married? i asked because i have religious trauma and this doesn't sit well with me.

Is there any reason that made you choose decisively Catharism and not other sects like Lucianism, Bogomilism, Encratism, etc.? How would you respond to atheists who are metaphysical naturalists (who say the supernatural doesn't exist because there is no scientific evidence for it)?

Let's look back at some memorable moments and interesting insights from last year.

Your top 10 posts:

• "Book recommendation: Montaillou" by u/Reshutenit
• "Cathar Cross of Angelic Light, Pixel Art (inspired by a medieval Cathar coin)" by u/No_Comfortable6730
• "Catharism as a Counter Church and as the Original Primitive Church" by u/No_Comfortable6730
• "A question from a Christian (with Valentinian persuasion)"
• "Gnostic wisdom implies Jesus not crucified" by u/Gnosticguru
• "The Secret Gnostic Gospels" by u/HistoryBuffLakeland
• "Marcion the mariner (poem)" by u/No_Comfortable6730
• "Happy Cakeday, r/Cathar! Today you're 13" by u/AutoModerator
• "bogomilism documentary: Bogre - The Great European Heresy" by u/Denon_1
• "I’m I required to be vegan" by u/Katievapes1996

In winter’s cold grip

In the land of the Angles

The Good Christians came

Against their will to a trial

In a grand city

Called the Ford of the Oxen

Good will be slaughtered

By the hands of hot fire

The hands of the judge

The home’s ruler was their judge

His stare was piercing

That went with flaming outbursts

And with his red hair

And the king’s false overseers

Were the proud jury

Against the thirty Christians

Who came years before

Who came to spread medicine

To heal the ones sick

Cleanse all those with leprosy

To raise the ones dead

Cleanse all those with black demons

All without a fee

But to the judge and jury

This was dark poison

That spread about pestilence

And the Good Christians

Were flees spreading everywhere

Now in England’s robe

Eating away the fabric

In his scruffy clothes

The king asked them some questions

In their ornate robes

The overseers asked as well

In their simple clothes

The thirty Christians answered

“We believe in Christ

The glorious physician

Son of the Most High

Who dwelt with men in this world

To preach grace and truth

In this world of law and sin”

They took a brief pause

“Concerning the wooden cross

We do not bow down

The cross is not an idol

It was a device

Of torture and freezing death

That killed the healer

We worship the life, not death”

More words were ordered

“Concerning your baptism

Water is water

Christ came to baptise with flames

Not red flames, but white

With the eternal Spirit

To be true water

With the blazing flames as foam

Spirit gives us grace

This world’s water has no grace”

More words were ordered

“Concerning your common feast

That your priests give out

Your feast of bread and rich wine

Our sole bread is Christ

Who can never be consumed

For he is Spirit

And never becomes man’s food

Obeying his words

Are how we eat this sole bread

Our wine is Spirit

Who grows fruit within us all

To prosper and grow”

Last words were ordered

“The Church of Wolves reigns this world

Through its fangs and claws

None are permitted to flee

Or they will bleed red

With life gushing out of them”

The king spurted threats

Filled with coldness and hot flames

Threatening torment

And the void beyond this life

For their honesty

And the jury went along

In his sheer anger

As if they were some nobles

Shouting in a hunt

The thirty Christians spoke thus

“Blessed are those ones

Who suffer from sword or flame

From rope or prison

Or from winter’s sheer coldness

For the sake of light

For Christ and goodness itself

For they are Christ’s own

They are in heaven’s kingdom”

The jury looked on

In their long adorned white robes

Clenching their own fists

Feeling their ring in their palms

“Heretics!” They yelled

With that word, the trail ended

They were now guilty

Still they sang a song of life

“Blessed are those ones

Who are reviled and hated

Rejoice and be glad

For great is the light of Christ”

As red flames rose up

The king in his ruthlessness

Had all of them flogged

In the sight of the cattle

And had their brows burned

And drove them from oxen’s ford

And they stripped them all

To wail and die in frost’s grip

Or be still in pain

But they kept singing with joy

The king shut his mouth

For hot anger chained his lips

His freckled face scowled

All the cattle were ordered

To have no pity

And walk to the other side

If one is in sight

And not pour good oil and wine

On their bleeding wounds

And not let them find an inn

To find some shelter

They were in winter’s cold chains

For nature herself

To be executioner

Those few Good Christians

Still had the spirit in them

And looked to the stars

Just as Christ laughed on the tree

They joyfully laughed

They went to this world laughing

And left this cold world laughing

I found this fave, and I believe it’s closest to what I believe I have heard a lot of things about them being vegan and I do feel guilty at times about eating me, but I have sensory issues and I am an extremely picky eater. There’s times where my body will literally only let me eat one certain food for the last three weeks it’s been wings am I required to be a vegan or vegetarian? I’m just not sure if it’s something I can do with all of my issues is there any sort of medical exemption? Thanks