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Goodbye Jesus

Ex-christianity And Neo-paganism


Crunk Bishop

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back in my home state of South Carolina, I met alot of neo-pagans who used to be Christians and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed any such tendency?

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I think alot of people go through a phase of that. I know of very few who went from total belief in Christianity to belief in nothing in one step.

 

Sorta like a heroin addict using methadone?

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I was pagan for awhile. I was generic fluff-bunny for a time, then later started research & training into Hellenic Reconstructionism (i.e. Greek paganism). My pantheon was always Greek, for some reason - probably because even though my ancestors were insular Celts, I learned far more about the Greeks from a semi-Classical education.

 

I still seem to have some pagan outlooks on life, even though I consider myself an atheist now.

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I'm a pagan. There are quite a few of us on the board.

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Yep. Ex-Catholic. started out learning some shamanic theory, went into Wicca with both feet, then after I did some maturing moved towards eclectic Paganism. I now consider myself a Pagan mystic or Pagan lightworker. \

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Was a neopagan for awhile. Realized I couldn't literally believe in that either.

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I probably need to add that I'm not a Pagan literalist. I feel it is entirely possible to be a good Pagan without believing in the details of the dogma. I don't get hung up on details. I posted a good bit on my spiritual philosophy in that "what you believe" story challenge under Rants and Replies... and so I don't start repeating myself, go over there.

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I'm Norse heiðinn, a.k.a. Ásatrú ("faithful to the Æsir"). Odin, Freyja, Thor, Loki and all the rest are family to me.

 

However, I have an increasingly feisty skeptical streak in me. My definition of "the gods" is liberal enough to consider the possibility that the Æsir and Vanir are my own ancestors; non-supernatural beings from elsewhere in the galaxy; or virtual-presence archetypes created and sustained by cultural memes. And any of the above is a satisfactory outcome in my book, because I can utilize just about any definition of god-ishness that you can come up with.

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On a bad day I am an atheist. On a good day I am a pagan (of the Platonic/Greek variety).

 

But I will never be a Christian (or a Jew, Muslim), unless I was lobotomized or had a traumatic head injury.

 

On a bad day I am an atheist. On a good day I am a pagan (of the Platonic/Greek variety).

 

But I will never be a Christian (or a Jew, Muslim), unless I was lobotomized or had a traumatic head injury.

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back in my home state of South Carolina, I met alot of neo-pagans who used to be Christians and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed any such tendency?

 

I've never been a fundie, but I am an ex-christian heathen, and most of my fellow heathens (those I know that is) have been christians before too. ;)

 

Of course of the standard German (= lukewarm) kind...

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Does anyone get into paganism partly to upset their Xtian relations? I know a few pagans who used to be Born Agains and also a few who were brought up Jewish

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You rang?

 

Not exactly a pagan, I guess if one had to classify what I do, it is more of a Chaos Magic thing. And with respect to the whole light/dark right-hand-path/left-hand-path, well, I'm neither.

 

As far as pissing off parents, there are far easier ways to do that than switch religions, so on my end it is a resounding Fuck No! (if it weren't for a whole bunch of mental midgets, I may have been offended at that)

 

Sure, there are a few fluff-bunnies and boo-scaries that do the whole piss-off-the-'rents thing, but they have a tendency to wash-out, or, well reveal that they are indeed idiots (or as some of my friends call them: clownshoes, those squeaky shoes...) They may be pagan, but they can swing for all I care (i.e. I show them all the respect they deserve).

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I went through a pagan phase for a while, read some books about Wicca, hung out on a Wiccan discussion board or two, got in to goddess worship for a short time. I am now somewhat agnostic/athiest though would like to be considered a pagan "wise woman" or "crone" some day.

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Definitely an eclectic pagan here. I started with Wicca in my teens, got into Gnosticism at 20, and went past all that into my own thing that synthesizes that which makes the most sense to me.

 

And no, I didn't get into it to piss off or shock my parents. My mom's pretty cool with it, for the most part.

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Could someone please define what a Pagan is in the terms of this thread?

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*Raises hand* Yo.

 

Former Christian, went to atheistic/agonstic for a while - and then became eclectic pagan, studied Wicca for a bit, found it a bit too fluffyish for my tastes, studied some egyptian and Greek pantheons and beliefs, never found anything the resonated so I went mostly eclectic.

 

Currently leaning very heavily towards Discordianism.

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I'm with Zoe Grace and Amethyst. I've been pagan, but it's becoming harder and harder for me to believe it, or believe in it. This thought kind of sneaked up on me: "Christianity and paganism both make about the same amount of sense....very little, that is."

 

So, I guess for lack of a better term, I'll call myself an agnostic. Not ready for "atheist" yet. I still wish there was some kind of a god/dess....something much more benevolent than biblegod.

 

And I never came out and told my parents in so many words, "I'm a pagan," nor have I said specifically, "I no longer believe in Christianity." I just let my actions speak for me....

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Could someone please define what a Pagan is in the terms of this thread?

 

Let's see... how about:

 

Pagan (or heathen, I like that term better) = follower of a polytheistic (and commonly, but not always, pre-monotheistic) faith, like the Celtic pantheon, Asatru, the Gods of ancient Greece, et cetera.

Of course the official definition is quite different... pagan = country-dweller, heathen = one who practices his faith under the open sky, literally "on the heath". But let's face it, in common parlor today the first paragraph roughly sums up what people mean by the term(s).

 

Feel free to add or modify.

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Okay, going by your definition, Thurisaz, I am not a pagan anymore although I used to be.

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Okay, going by your definition, Thurisaz, I am not a pagan anymore although I used to be.

 

;)

 

Of course it kind of stands to reason whether there were any genuine atheists back in babblical times, and if so, whether the first zealots would've counted them as "pagans" or not. :scratch:

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Not all pagans are polytheists. Many pagan philosophers, such as Epictetus and possibly Plato, were monotheist. Some others were pantheist or panentheist, such as Plotinus.

 

If you ask me, paganism refers more to a set of values and inclinations more than any explicit dogma or beliefs. Some pagans believed in the literal existence of the gods, some thought they were useful myths, and a few rejected them even as that, such as the pagan poet Catullus.

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