Community
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Humans are Fallible. That Includes Theists.
John Beckett at Patheos has responded to my blog post, The Religion That Dares Not Say Its Name. His response is frankly disappointing. Beckett takes issue with my suggestion that theists preface their claims with “I believe”, and that atheists do the same. While acknowledging that beliefs can be wrong, his claim is that by saying “I believe”, theists would undermine the confidence communicated in their expressions of faith; that, by admitting the possibility that they may be wrong, they are opening the door—albeit just a tiny crack—to admission of the chance that what they so fervently believe is factually untrue. “In the atheist-influenced reaction to this culture,” he writes, “that…
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The Religion that Dares Not Speak its Name
The provocative John Halstead has kicked the hornet’s nest again with his posts critiquing elements of modern Paganism, and defending the legitimacy of doing so while still identifying as a Pagan. This sort of thing foments much unhappiness on the part of some theist Pagans, and in response, John Beckett has penned something suggesting that you can’t both be a Pagan and “look down your nose at it” (the second Halstead piece is a response to this). I suggest you read all three of these pieces. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Increasingly, my experience of Pagan theists in relation to Pagan atheism is no longer that they want to kick us out…
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Atheopaganism and the Broader Pagan Community
It’s never going to be a completely comfortable fit. Just as the suggestion of religious ritual and other symbolic, poetic, metaphorical practices will always be dismissed by some in the atheist community, Atheopaganism is always going to be viewed by some in the Pagan community as not rightfully belonging. Let me stop there and say that in my experience, that is a distinctly minority position. Most of the Pagans I have come out to as Atheopagan have been curious and interested in talking about the details of what I believe and do, but they have shown no interest in showing me the door. So let’s start there: this appears only to be an…
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“But I’m Lonely!” Finding Fellow Atheopagans
Atheopaganism is a new religious path. The essay in which I laid out its principles is only five years old, and it has been visible on the web for only a year. This inevitably means that practitioners seeking to find people to circle with are going to be a little challenged. It’s fine to practice as a solitary, but many of us prefer to have a community with which we can share our rituals, our observances, and our exploration of our Atheopagan path. It can be difficult to get started. Here are some suggestions which may help. If you’re already a part of a Pagan community, invite your Pagan friends to…
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Okay, So You’re an Atheist. Now What?
In my experience, many of those who arrive at atheism from another set of religious beliefs go through a “refractory period” during which their impulse is to celebrate their new perspective and, often, to do a bit of gloating about how much more reasonable they feel they have become than those credulous in supernatural phenomena like gods, effective prayer, and so forth. Some find that stance satisfying, and stop there. In a national study of atheists in the U.S., the University of Tennessee identified 6 sub-groups, one of which, the “Anti-Theists”, comprising about 14% of the total, continually focuses primarily on disagreements with theists and actively advocates that others should follow their lead into…
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On Pagan Institutions and Representation
N.B.: This is an “inside baseball” piece addressing the current controversy within the Pagan community over whether or not it is a good idea for Pagans to emulate other religions in creating organizations, institutions, and perhaps even credentialing for clergy or other leadership. As such, this may not be of interest to Atheopagans who do not consider themselves to be a part of the Pagan community. I have written before on Paganism modeling itself on mainstream Abrahamic religions; specifically, on Pagan conceptualization of a “top-down”/parental model of the Universe, and of the creation of modern Paganism with an assumption that in order to be a religion, a path must contain a…
