neopaganism

[blinddesign]

any neopagans here? i know most of you are atheists, so am i but i superficially believe in the anglo-saxan pagan gods. mostly out of irony (like FSM) and from national pride (it's a traditional english thing). also it's really cool, Thor the god of thinder and stuff.
even if you aren't a pagan, what do you think about it? what do you think about the take-over by christianity resulting in its near-extinction.

 

[Ozymandyus]

I think actually pretending to believe in such fairy tales is somewhat a waste of energy, but it can be fun to make believe sometimes. And it certainly is fun to study mythology.

As long as you aren't carrying out any weird pagan rituals and believing that they someone affect the earth, I guess theres no harm done. Unless by pretending to do so you are enabling and encouraging others who actually believe such junk, in which case, some harm done.

As for the take-over by Christianity resulting in the near extinction of man... thats quite a statement - not sure its very prove-able. On the contrary its quite possible that without christianity we may have managed to eradicate ourselves in some way, hard to say. But yeah, I do think its rather indisputable that religion in general is now standing in the way of our progress towards understanding.

 

[Aught3]

Well, I think believing in one God is a waste of time so I think you can work out for yourself how I feel about a pantheon.

@Ozy, I don't think he was talking about the extinction of humankind, but of the extinction of the Pagan faith(s).

I love to see which parts of other religions Christianity has incorporated I find it hilarious. Like Easter, named for a Pagan goddess and we still give chocolate rabbits to this day.

 

[Ozymandyus]

Ah, reading comprehension ftl. I'm pretty slow sometimes, I didn't drink my normal pot o' coffee today.

I don't much mind that most pagan beliefs have died out, a lot of them were even sillier than christianity and thats saying something. I think that the study of them certainly shouldn't die out, and to the extent that we've lost any history because of christians burning pagan texts and such - makes me pretty mad.

 

[blinddesign]

Ah, reading comprehension ftl. I'm pretty slow sometimes, I didn't drink my normal pot o' coffee today.

i totally understand, i'm like that.

I don't much mind that most pagan beliefs have died out, a lot of them were even sillier than christianity and thats saying something. I think that the study of them certainly shouldn't die out, and to the extent that we've lost any history because of christians burning pagan texts and such - makes me pretty mad.

i don't believe they are sillier. for example the main part of the religion is basically respecting the earth and being in awe of it. how much would we have cut down on pollution by now if paganism had as much influence as christianity?
the loss of history bit, yeah... do you know how little old english text we still have? it's incredible. we pretty much have beowulf and that's it. that's part of my 'belief', keeping it alive a bit.

I love to see which parts of other religions Christianity has incorporated I find it hilarious. Like Easter, named for a Pagan goddess and we still give chocolate rabbits to this day.

it is definitely a hilarity. i try to point it out to every christian, even if they don't want to hear it.

As long as you aren't carrying out any weird pagan rituals and believing that they someone affect the earth, I guess theres no harm done. Unless by pretending to do so you are enabling and encouraging others who actually believe such junk, in which case, some harm done.

obviously i don't believe in THAT. i am a member of the league of reason after all... i suppose it is more the study of it than the witchcraft and gods, i ignore the 'hocus-pocus' wizadry aspect but i am interested in it. the blot does sound fun though. sacrificing live animals... lol.

 

[Nightmare060]

I'm a pantheistic neo-pagen myself. I consider nature to be the equivalent of a devine god, that should be worshiped, reveared and looked after. I'm compleatly agnostic when it comes to Magick or gods being transcendant beings.

 

[Ozymandyus]

What do you mean by worship? I am confused as to what this pantheism entails - what does it really mean to you?

If it is merely some sort of respect for nature, consideration of it when we act and acknowledgement of its power/fragility when we plan for things... then I buy into those beliefs.

I don't think those beliefs come from any sort of God, and don't understand the need to reference a God concept to believe in those things, its just something tacked on there to give it 'extra' explanatory power. In my opinion, it ultimately weakens the whole thing by appealing to something that is simply not real and has no evidence.

And if you are agnostic about 'Magick and Transcendent Gods' that means that you don't think a claim can be made one way or the other about it... I'm quite gnostic about this, which is to say that I believe it has been quite proven that magic and transcendent Gods Don't exist. There is no evidence for such things, and though we can't know with 100% certainty, we can know to the degree that we know that anything we make up doesn't exist(e.g.one eyed one horned giant purple people eaters or spaghetti monsters).