fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3315 ]

[ SECRET POST #3315 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3315 ⌋

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Because I don't literally believe in gods or anything supernatural, but I do, however, get spiritual comfort and inspiration from gods and I feel more drawn to some, like Odin. The gods don't exist, but my relationship with them is genuine enough. For me, it's like meditating, and I don't think you need to believe in anything to meditate. I think ideas can gives us strength and such but it's entirely from within, not actually from an outward entity, and the gods to me are great focuses from my personal spiritual experiences.

I'm aware that sounds flaky as fuck but that kind of comes with the territory, being pagan. lol Though for what it's worth, I'd say about a third of the pagans I've met are basically glorified atheists too, more of the "spiritual not religious" New Age types.

Looks pretty theist to me. And/or quite hypocritical.

lol okay. not believing in the literal existence of anything supernatural, including gods, is theist. let's roll with that then.

praying to and having a "genuine relationship with them" looks very much like believing
hence, theist

Why? An experience can be genuine or mean something to you without it being real. I don't believe in fictional characters but I still get sad when my favorite characters die. Praying for me is like meditating, at any rate. I'm not worshiping. I light a few candles, focus on the deity of my choice and try to either calm myself or sort out my life problems. They're more like imaginary friends than anything.

You do sound like a disgruntled theist about this whole thing, though. Sorry, sis, I'm not a believer, no matter how much you want me to be.

I would say "hence the hypocrisy" myself, but whatever. None of y'all sound very rational.

There's only hypocrisy if you have a narrow-minded view of what gods are and what people's relationships with them must be. You do you, let others do them.

mte

I mean... call yourself whatever you want, but that doesn't sound like atheism to me. You're praying to gods, just not Christian ones. It sounds to me like you're just pagan, not "atheist pagan". It's a bit like saying you're a vegetarian because you don't believe in eating meat, but you regularly eat steak and roast chicken because you derive spiritual and nutritional benefit from your relationship with meat.

I do call myself what I feel most accurately describes myself. I have a religion (of sorts), though it's my own spiritual choices and not organized, but "atheist" refers to lack of belief in gods, or in my case, anything supernatural or unscientific. If I described my beliefs alone, I'm 100% atheist. My spirituality is paganism, but that doesn't refer to my actual beliefs.

And no, I never distinguished between Christian and pagan gods. I view Christ and the Christian god as just as real as my preferred gods. I could invent a god right now and it would be just as legitimate - they all don't exist, but they are valuable and have meaning if you give them value and meaning. I do have a relationship with gods that is NOT a typical Christian or Western religion-type relationship, yes. And frankly if I think if you find it impossible to understand, I'd say you're coming at it from a Western bias of what religion is.

In fact, most pagans I've met don't believe in the literal existence of gods, but rather as metaphors or sources of spiritual energy. They are all man-made, I don't think most New Age pagans think differently than that.

Newbie poster here waaay to late to answer this thread, but I had to tell you, I was really impressed by your answers. My knowledge of paganism has been practically non-existent but you really sparked my curiousity here. Do you have any literature you could recommend for a beginner?

As an atheist (in a sense that I lack religious faith) who has only recently realized that there is a difference between reality and our perception of it, I'm floored by your maturity and insight on this subject matter. Right now I'm at the end where I'm more inclined to say that the only real thing is the experience/perception/relationship we have of things because that is the only thing our human mind is capable of comprehending and processing.

Well, thank you! I get what you mean about perceptions and relationships, that's basically how I personally divide my sense of spirituality and my sense of reality. I can't say I'm an expert about Neopaganism, mainly because it's a really vague term with million different meanings depending on who you ask, and I really only know my own sense of spirituality... I don't think I've read a book that exactly describes my approach, but there was one that stood out to me - it was called The Philosophy of Wicca by Amber Laine Cook. It's not a typical Wicca book in that it's not about witchcraft, magic or spells, but it's more about pagan philosophy and spirituality and I remember being really moved by lots of the ideas she had. She approached gods in a similar way that I do, from what I remember, so I do recommend it if you ever see it around.

As someone who's always looking to be inspired by different, new ideas and thoughts, thank you so much for the tip!

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[ SECRET POST #3315 ]

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