most pagans tell me they believe in evolution and not some fucked ass creation story
so why do you need a religion at all
not to mention a silly dead 2000 tears old religions like Northern or Celtic paganism
it's cool enough to be a comic book but not something you believe in
especially if you do accept scientific solutions to how the world works
they see the god as personifications of the forces that created us. to them the gods and what the god represents are one and the same so to them Thor represents the thunder in a storm and he IS the thunder.
The world is not separated into Christians and atheists, and just because we don't accept the Christian creation myth does not mean that religion loses its point. We don't see why a single perfect god who contradicts himself and makes no logical sense is a more rational belief than many thousands of imperfect gods who argue with one another about how the world should work.
Just because, in the forceful spreading of Christianity, the Pagan gods were slandered, demonized, and made to seem silly, that doesn't mean that the belief in them is any less rational. Our culture is filled with the remnants of the Christian takeover of Europe. Most people think that the word "myth" means that something is not true and Christians will take offense if you call the Bible mythology, but a "myth" is merely any story about divine forces such as deities that explains, in some way, the way the world works, and therefore the Bible is as much mythology as any story about the Greek gods. Maybe you think our gods are silly, but we don't.
If millions of people can believe in a single all-powerful, all-knowing god, why can't several thousand of us believe that the ancient gods exist. Pagans generally accept scientific findings, and we generally don't encourage any religious teachings (our own as well as those of others) to be put into law. Plenty of us are sane and intelligent members of society. In most cases, our religions actually encourage us to seek knowledge of all kinds and to think for ourselves rather than follow any book. Why do we need religion? We find it fulfilling, and we believe it helps us maintain a personal relationship with our gods.
I know you said not Wicca, but I believe in those old deities and when you claim that it's silly to accept both them and science, you claim my religion is silly too. I don't believe in the old myths literally, and most Pagans would agree with me. The old gods are more than the myths, and just because the myths aren't literally true does not mean that there is no truth to them at all.
Venus Bless
Science is about explaining the physical universe.
Religion is about explaining the spiritual universe.
How does accepting one negate a need for the other? That's like asking why have a need for history if I accept the reality of biology. They don't contradict one another. They address different things.
And why on earth are you singling out Hindus and Wiccans as inappropriate to answer?
Also, accusing people of following a "dead religion" is ridiculous. If it was dead, no one would be following it.
Erm real Celts & Norse don't believe in Evolution. Besides we're too busy being Warriors than being mentally challenged hippies who wish they were one of us
First, as Nightwind said, it's not "dead" if people are practicing it.
Second, science doesn't answer all questions - it *cannot* answer all questions, according to its own theorems (ref. Goedel). Religion is there to answer the questions that science alone cannot answer, or simply hasn't gotten around to answering yet. The two, combined, give a more complete and holistic view of the universe.
As to creation stories - they're stories, meant to convey concepts, and are not recipes, to be considered step-by-step instructions on the creation of all things. It's quite silly to get the two confused.
And, finally, we don't follow these religions because someone else thinks that they're "cool enough" - we follow them because our life experiences have lead us to believe that this is how things really are. Personal experiences and personal revelations tend to trump trendiness in my book.
No, I think you just misunderstand the role of religion in society and in the human psychology.
Religion is not merely a believe in the supernatural... religion is a means of expression, like art or music.
Religion provides a foundation for morals, values and traditions in communities which help people defined themselves and find a place with shared values and traditions; rites of passages that help ease transitions; rituals that awaken something primal and at as a sort of mental "switch"; myths pass on the wisdom of the ages and the human experience, you don't have to believe them literally to see the value in them. Holidays remind us of things we hold sacred and value, to stop and be mindful of them.
Sociologically speaking, religion is far bigger than just what one group might believe spiritually.
You should read up on Joseph Campbell, particularly "The Power of Myth." Campbell was an atheist, by the way, but he could see the bigger picture in the role religion fulfilled.
There are religions atheists are a part of: some Pagans, some Buddhist sects, some UUs and Secular Humanists, etc... Campbell wasn't the only atheist to realize the value of religion.
whats the deal with pagans (not Wicca or Hindu)?
