The word Kirk is the name for church. It is a (celtic)phonetical representation of the word church.('ch' has a 'k' sound.. kinda.) The interpretation you speak of (that being pagan) is not Scottish at all, rather the reverse. etymologicaly speaking it is a chicken egg thing, Kirk = Church. The name was also atributed to the godess Circe who was supposedly a godess of truth and is represented by a circle.
Kirk however does represent pretty much all churches. Now, "The Kirk" is a different matter all together. That is the Church of Scotland. The general use of the term "The Kirk" is pretty much a slang term. For a while there where no other churches alowed to opperate in Scottland, so all Kirk's were Presbyterian. Another Chicken/Egg thing.
Circe Was indeed all that you say insofar as Homer's Odesy is concerned. She was an enchantress and daughter of Hellios. She had a son with Odysseus. (By the way, all of you who think Potter is bad, protect your kids from anything written by Homer... Odysseus worked with Hermes to counter Circe's spells.)As far as her being considered the goddess of truth, that came from a pagan site and I can't find anything to substantiate that. Some wierdo thinks she is anyhow. I appologize for not looking into that farther.
The point of the post is pretty strait forward though, The word Church comes from Circe.
I will also add the word 'Religion' is just as bad:Webster's Collegiate Dictionary traces the word back to an old Latin word religio meaning "taboo, restraint." A deeper study discovers the word comes from the two words re and ligare. Re is a prefix meaning "return," and ligare means "to bind;" in other words, "return to bondage."
So, Have fun going to Circe in order to return to bondage!
So what gives with James T. Kirk
And McCoy and Montgomery Scott
Coincidence?
Circe was NEVER the " goddess of truth " in ANY ancient culture !
Oh, and the PICTS , who are the ancesters of most Scots, weren't Celts. Ergo, saying that K = ch in the Celtic language, doesn't work.
As for religion and that word's relationship to bondage, from a militaristic standpoint it's quite clear. Disregarding for the moment all the stuff about salvation and souls and so forth what is a religion? Well it's a collection of rules and moral guideline. Rules that are not to be broken, rules that keep you from doing stuff, rules that "bind" your actions (if you will). Of course this is held up by the fact that the word "law" stems from "legal" which itself comes from that same bondage root. To a freewheeling always conquering military society all rules, whether from man or god (lowercase because I'm using the concept of all gods not The Entity, I try so hard not to offend) are restricting and binding.
As for Circe and church I'm not buying it. Here's from the Websters site: [Middle English chirche, from Old English cirice, ultimately from Medieval Greek krikon, from Late Greek kriakon (dma), the Lord's (house), neuter of Greek kriakos, of the lord, from krios, lord. See keu- in Indo-European Roots.]
Looks like it pretty much skipped Rome. Which makes sense, church has a very British Isle fondness for consenants and a Greek love of the k-r (r-k in this instance) combo.