Opinion
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“I Don’t Get It.”
“I don’t get it.” A comment I’ve seen and heard several times in relation to Atheopaganism: “I just don’t get what you’re doing, or why you’re doing it. Why would you do rituals if there is no magic and there are no gods?” (or, “what’s up with these rituals and holidays? Why do you do that?”) Well, let me explain… For joy. For wonder. For wisdom. For depth. For laughter. For self-discovery. For connection. For friendship. For solace. For clarity. For calm. For delight. For forbearance. For kindness. For fun. For sharing. For passion. For flight. For belonging. For discovery. For pleasure. For creativity. For curiosity. For community. For surprise.…
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Does Truth Matter?
Eppur si muove. —Galileo Galilei Recently. a friend posted to the Atheopaganism Facebook group, describing a conversation she was having elsewhere in which accusations of “classism” and “colonialism” were being leveled at those who express what is almost certainly the truth: that gods and magic do not exist, except as ideas. And you know? That accusation may have a point…if that message is directed at indigenous practitioners of native spiritualities. For those people, cultural preservation is important—and threatened—no matter how out of step with objective reality their beliefs might be. They have reasons to steward and preserve their cultures which have nothing to do with how factually accurate their…
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Atheism, Paganism, and Agreeing to Disagree
I’ve been thinking lately about the crossroads where Atheopaganism lives: straddling lines between atheism, Paganism, and activism. In the atheistic world, skepticism is a given. There, when you propose something—a policy, a factual claim, a strategic approach to problem solving—it is assumed that you will have both material evidence and cogent argumentation to back your position. Others are welcomed to interrogate, prod at, and refute the position as best they are able. This is a process by which we can arrive at a position which is more likely to be correct than if we did not so critique the initial proposition. The process is central to the operation of science…
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Beyond Faith. Beyond Fundamentalism.
Let’s start by acknowledging that the definitions are fuzzy. There is no universally agreed-to definition of what a “religion” even is. “Spirituality” is just as indeterminate. So all we can do is look at religions of the world and try to identify the elements that compose them. When I do that, I conclude that a religion, functionally, comes in three pieces: a cosmology, which is a description of the nature of the Universe which is subscribed to by adherents of the religion; a set of values which define what is Sacred, what is important, and how we should live; and a set of practices such as rites, holidays, traditions and…
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Five Great Reasons to Be an Atheopagan
This is a bit of a bandwagon post. John Beckett and Jason Mankey have just posted about “Five Bad Reasons to be a Pagan” and “Five Good Reasons” to be one, respectively. They’re at Patheos, which I no longer link to, but you can find them easily if you like. Their posts got me thinking about how happy I am with my Atheopagan practice. It’s been ten years this year since I stripped the god-imagery that I really didn’t believe out of my practice and completed my essay on why I wasn’t going to pretend any longer. At that moment, a profound sense of relief and “rightness” swept through me.…
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Unpopular Ideas
On this day in 1809, Charles Darwin was born. 50 years later, he would publish “On the Origin of Species”, which pretty well blew the doors off the scientific world, outraged the contemporary religious culture, and established the key scientific foundation of the field of biology for all time. Darwin knew what he was doing. He sat on “Origin” for years, aware that the core implication of his work—that no God was necessary to explain the diversity of life on Earth—would bring him a deluge of hatred and ridicule. He was right. 159 years on, Christian fundamentalists still rail against Darwin’s discovery. Their entire worldview is threatened by his simple…
