Principles
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On Mirth
As I have referenced before, these are challenging days. Much is at stake, and fools are at the wheel. For someone prone to depression like me, it can be hard to keep my chin up and headed forward. This is why Atheopagan Principle 5 is so very important. Because it reminds us that the world of humans is not only tragic: it is absurd. And absurdity is hilarious. I’ve never heard any—perhaps they do not survive—but I guarantee that German Jews in the mid-1930s had Nazi jokes: not only because Jewish culture is generally lively withh humor, but because this is what humans do. We make the unbearable bearable, we knock our problems down to size, even…
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It’s On Us Now
As an Atheopagan, I have Principles. They are a set of values about what is Sacred and how we should conduct ourselves in the world. Those values are about to be severely challenged as the far-right government of Donald Trump threatens the world with environmental, economic and military cataclysm and gives tacit permission to racists, sexists and homophobes to assault, threaten and intimidate people of color, LGBTQ people, religious minorities and women. The last is happening already with disturbing frequency. Those of us with a naturalistic worldview already understood that our world is under deep threat. We knew that creating a better future wasn’t going to be easy. It just didn’t seem…
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A No-Bullshit Religion
A week or so ago, when I published “Is Atheopaganism Political?“, I expected some pushback. I suspected that there might be some who have embraced—even subconsciously—the dualistic idea that religion/spirituality lives in a separate realm of human experience from that of pragmatic matters such as public policy. So I thought there might be some commentary along the lines of “well, that’s okay for you, but I don’t concern myself with such things.” Or some such. I doubted you, friends, and I should not have. There was no such response. Feedback was nothing but positive. And this tells me that the Atheopagan group and the readers of the blog get it: that our pursuit of…
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Values and Self-Development in a World without Gods
Atheopagans don’t believe in gods. We don’t believe there is a Cosmic Plan beyond the simple unfolding of the Cosmos according to physical laws. We don’t believe in an afterlife. We believe that science tells us all that can reliably be known about the nature of the Universe. Many who do believe in gods see them as defining the moral structure of their lives. They are prone to demand of atheists: how is it that you are not amoral sociopaths? To which we reply: because our morality is within ourselves, not defined for us by some external authority. We do not need marching orders, threats or inducements from gods in order to be…
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Encountering Your Personal Atheopaganism
Through my essay and on this site, I have laid out Atheopagan Principles and values that work for me. They may work for you, too—I think of them as relatively universal ideals of a life well lived. But your mileage may vary; maybe you disagree with one or more of the Principles I articulated, or maybe there are others which are deeply important to you. So as you craft your personal “flavor” of Atheopaganism, I encourage you to ask yourself, “What really matters to me? What kind of person do I want to be? What kind of world do I want to live in? What do I need to do to…
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Pleasure as a Sacred Experience
As I practice and have described it, the tenth Principle of Atheopaganism is responsible sensuality: the cultivation of pleasure for its own sake, so long as in doing so we are not harming others or the Earth. It’s May Day weekend, that sexy festival of fertility and passion, so now is a good time to write a bit more about this. I’m somewhat wistful about lost experiences of Pagan joy back in the bad old 80s. Yes, we were clueless and somewhat irresponsible—and some had miserably bad personal boundaries—but there was real freedom and joy in dancing naked about a Maypole, in sharing touch and pleasure with friends and comrades…
