Labels, Content, Intellectual Honesty, Religious Honesty

[loreleyjacob]

The discussion at TC about Pagan atheism really left me drained and exhausted. I spent so much time explaining stuff and debating things, when really, I don't *care* if people rightly define themselves as Pagan or not. I don't care if people understand atheism or not. It may annoy me on the intellectual level. I may spend 5 seconds despising folks

Comments

[elfwreck]

The Cauldron is a great place to have intellectual discussions. The regulars are witty, well-educated, greatly varied, and tolerant of many worlviews.

However, the anti-Mystery bias is what mostly drove me away. Many of the regulars believe that religion is mostly a matter of personal preferences along the lines of "I like science fiction but not romance novels;" there's little understanding or acceptance of the concept that a person's religion is chosen on a non-conscious, soul-deep level... nor that different religions have different core Truths.

(Caught in the Aneristic Illusion, they are: the notion that if you keep comparing & contrasting different grids, you'll find one that accounts for "all of reality" and therefore be "True

[loreleyjacob]

"there's little understanding or acceptance of the concept that a person's religion is chosen on a non-conscious, soul-deep level... nor that different religions have different core Truths".

I know. And it's a shame, cause I'd love to discuss that approach there too, like I discuss other stuff. TC is really my "home" forum, and it's something I miss there, but I'm not sure what I can do about it. (I sometimes start threads about related issues, but there aren't many replies to them....)

That particular thread was weird, though. I somehow found myself defending something I don't personally believe in (atheism, which is maybe the most anti-Mystery approach ever) just because it annoyed me to see it misused, abused and misrepresented.

An "atheist Pagan" who could not for the life of her explain what in her path is pagan, a Buddhist, and an atheist praying to Odin - all claimed to know modern Western atheism better than me. Bleh.

[dybbykins]

I had a thought today. Even if someone conclusively can persuade a room full of people that the glass slipper fits, even if it means persuading others to stretch it out in the heel a little for them to make it more comfy; a size six is still a size six

[amber_laine]

Out of curiosity, I went to visit the thread in question. I found the discussion extremely interesting, actually, because from my point of view most everyone had really valid points on some level. Even if I myself didn't necessarily agree with the position a certain poster was taking, I could understand the validity of that point of view and how they might have arrived at that opinion