Religion

"We teach by poetic inference, by thinking along lines that belong to the world of dreams and images. There is no hard and fast teaching technique, no laid down scripture or law, for wisdom comes only to those who deserve it, and your teacher is yourself seen through a mirror darkly. The answers to all things are in the Air---Inspiration, and the winds will bring you news and knowledge, if you ask them properly........There is no secret in the world that cannot be discovered if the recipient is ready to listen to it, since the very Air itself carries memory and knowledge."
- Robert Cochrane, 1931-1966.

A Note to Overeducated Missionaries:
Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione. Quo usque tandem abutere patentia nostra? translation

Here's the deal, folks: the rational part of my mind, which controls the rest of my mind most of the time, prevents me from accepting any religion whatsoever wholeheartedly. I do not possess that quality known as "faith," nor can I overcome logical doubts about the veracity of deity. However, my artistic, empathic, spiritualistic side desperately wants something to fill the void left, and the religions I find most compatible with my aesthetic sensibilities are those religions collectively termed "Neo-Pagan," in particular wicca and asatru. Not that I can ever give up atheism, but atheism is by definition not a belief system, rather a simple lack of belief. I have read that belief is not a prerequisite for the practice of wicca, so in my mind, they are not incompatible.

About Witchcraft

I do believe in an energy/matter/substance which is popularly labelled "soul," but I do not believe it to be immortal. I believe it to be the sum total of those electrochemical processes which occur within our brain at any given moment. However, as energy is almost never created or destroyed but merely changes state, I cannot definitively state that the energy within our minds does not continue to exist as a coherent unit after the expiration of our physical bodies, nor that we cannot broadcast or send our mental energies in a heretofore-unexplained fashion. This may lend some credence to explanations of paranormal and psychic phenomena, after-death experiences, and even popular conceptions of "magick." It may even, in fact, lend some credence to theories of reincarnation.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy."
-William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I Scene 5

This belief does not, however, lead to belief in some transcendent state such as "heaven" or "hell" to which our souls pass after death. I do believe that this is our sole platform for extancy ("this" being defined as the space-time continuum), and as such we should endeavor to make this place as pleasant as possible for ourselves and for others during this and other lifetimes. I'm not saying there is some arbitrary "good" or "right" to being nice to other people, but you never know if part of your future life-soul energy might be resonating within these others. Admittedly this is not altruism, and is in fact rather selfish in its totality, in a fashion similar to the social contract of Thomas Hobbes. Nonetheless, it does give one a mildly positive attitude. It engenders respect for other humans, other forms of life, and the planet itself, which I feel to be important. My religion is an earth religion! It still offers absolutely no explanation as to how and why we exist, but I have no answers to these questions, only conjecture.

The explanations I tend to accept most easily are those scientific explanations dealing with natural phenomena, such as the so-called "big bang" theory and evolution of mankind from earlier primates. This metaphysic offers no indication of how one should behave, just that one should behave. For guidance I turn to my earlier suppositions. These premises are not at all rigid, so they have a shifting and adaptable nature. Thus my ethics are entirely situational. I do base them to a large degree on the Wiccan Rede: Do what you will as long as no harm comes of it, harm against others and harm against yourself. I also look to the Threefold Law: What you send out, you receive threefold in return. It's the pagan version of the Golden Rule, and it really is a bit more emotionally imperative than the original Golden Rule. These are the foundations of my ethical thought. Needless to say, I'm also a Libertarian.

Easter season has come and gone, but the humor just keeps on going. If you're a devout Christian you might not want to click this link. It might tick you off.







Yahoo's Religion Listings

Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance

Atheism and Agnosticism on miningco.com

Atheist Chat

American Atheist Magazine

The Covenant of the Goddess

The Universal Life Church

The American Humanist Association

Moira Scott's Witchcraft Pages

The PaganWeb

Wicca: what it is; what it isn't

Witches' League for Public Awareness

The Witches' Web

Wicca and Asatru

The Troth Official Web Site: Asatru and Heathen events, Goddesses and Gods, philosophy, cosmology

Frigga's Web

Raven Online

Race and Asatru

Personhood, the Bible, and the Abortion Debate

The Temple of Thelema

The Church of the Subgenius

The Council for Secular Humanism

Freedom From Religion Foundation

The God Simulator

If you've ever felt tempted to pick up a gun and go defend the One True Faith(TM) at some compound in the middle of nowhere, then The Gospel Plow is for you!

The Myth of the Historical Veracity of Jesus

The Secular Web

Unitarian Universalist Association

What is Humanism?

PythonLine








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