Author Archive

Why I’m A Pagan

[editor’s note, by its simple IF you ignore the complexity]I think exploring the basis of our faith traditions is important. I thank Roland for sharing his and hope promoting this helps make a statement in regards to Morgan’s recent diary.

It’s a funny thing. I haven’t thought seriously about the origins and underpinnings of my neopaganism in years. In the wake of my beloved wife Morgan’s post on non-Christian involvement in SP, however, I felt the need, and the reflection has been very good for my faith. I’ve spent some useful, valuable time thinking about what my spirituality means to me.

Anyway, my reason for being a neopagan. Well, I may be rather thoroughly hetero, but a common refrain from the LGBT community comes to mind: “do you think I’d put up with this much grief if this were a choice?” I certainly don’t believe that New Age faith is genetically based, but it almost seems as if our beliefs are written in our spiritual DNA at times. It’s commonly said that no one converts to paganism, you just realize one day that it’s what you’ve been all along.

Oh so much more after the flip.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Getting Over It

Okay, no promises, but I hope this is my last commentary on the cartoons, at least regarding the free speech flap. I’m actually going to come at this from the other end soon, but for now I have one more thing I have to say on the issue.

Links to some pretty inflammatory pictures past the flip.

Read the rest of this entry »

Words, Violence, Nuance and Proportion: Our Existential Crisis

I think we need to take serious stock of where we stand here. Civilization today is at a point where its very foundation — the idea that we can work out our differences without trying to kill each other — is in real danger. The facet brought up so often in the Traditional Media is our “interconnected, multicultural world.” In this frame, the question becomes whether or not freedom of expression can truly be maintained in the face of those who reject that ideal.

A whole heck of a lot more after the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m going to the special hell

FTR, I take the growing disaster in Europe over the Islam-slandering cartoons (but honestly –cartoons? Rioting over cartoons?) seriously. (Post edited to add the word “seriously” because I spaced and forgot it while posting at work. oops. –ed) And this post by Kevin Drum is almost the epitome of Liberal Not Getting It.

I still laughed my butt off at said post. I mean, this is Denmark we’re talking about here. I don’t think they are going to be invading anyone any time soon. What, are they going to burn a bunch of hemp in effigy? (They daren’t use the real thing — the contact high would stop the riots for weeks.)

Honestly, though, it’s really a very serious situation. We shouldn’t joke about it. Which is why I’m almost certainly going to the special hell reserved for molestors and people who talk in theaters (the latter of which I have, I’m embarrassed to say, also been known to do).

(/) Roland X
And actually, the hemp thing, that’d be the Netherlands. But since we’re stereotyping anyway… 😉

Read the rest of this entry »

Living With the Beast

Some interesting events in the diaries and comments today. While I haven’t read it all, this relates tangentially to something I’ve been thinking about, on and off, about dealing with here:

The Dark Side.

And I mean neither evil spiritual forces nor human ‘villains’ of any particular stripe. What I’m referring to is the tempter that lives in our brains. While it seems to be stronger in some than others — I am constantly amazed at how little anger my beloved wife Morgan seems even capable of, much less venting — there is that vicious little imp we call the ‘id’ in all of us, really.

Read the rest of this entry »

What Would Bejeezus Do?

Because I’m sick and wrong, and because I can.

http://www.seeuinhell.com/bejeezus.htm

Read the rest of this entry »

On Evil

My wife asked me to write on this subject as a result of the diary/thread Pact Of Lies. I realized that my thoughts, and response, were really too much to go into in a comment.

Lots more below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

New Age, belief and politics

I’ve been trying to deal with what label I can use to tell people who and what I am in a few words. Taoism worked for a while, until I could no longer face Lao Tze’s admonition to ‘cleave to the Yin’ when I’m a very Yang kind of guy. Since then, I’ve been kind of adrift when it comes to the name (I know what I am, but describing it usually takes a while). As I’ve been reading others talk about their own beliefs here, including Pastor Dan, Taliesin, lauramp, mondaymedia, my own beloved Morgan, and others, I’ve wondered how to do the same — and if it really mattered. I’m a religion of one, after all.

Except having been sick the past almost-week, I’ve had more time than usual to think about it, and I’ve realized, no, that’s not right. I’m a New Ager.

Read the rest of this entry »

Believing in Santa Claus

Crossposted from Big O.

Believe it or not, this is not yet another slam of DarkSyde’s rant. In fact, I’m going to do a little defending of his position here, even though I believe, quite firmly, that there is far more to the universe than these mere globs of animate biomatter we inhabit. However, it’s clear that DarkSyde’s real problems come not from people who ‘believe in Santa Claus,’ which represents something ‘whacky, if perhaps relatively pleasant on the surface’. Sure, he’s dismissive of the idea, but aside from the agnostics (and even them only to a point), which of us doesn’t believe we have a decent handle on our faith/beliefs/reason? I mean, if we didn’t actually think we were right, we wouldn’t believe what we believe. QED.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Hell

Hoo boy.

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while now, but I haven’t had the huevos to write it until now. Inspired by the Afterlife Poll, I’ve decided to tackle this issue head-on.

How on Earth, Heaven or anywhere in between can any sane person believe that God is Love, yet sends souls to be tortured in pain beyond imagining for all eternity? Seriously, is it just me, or is the very notion just completely whacked beyond all recognition?

Read the rest of this entry »

AWSOM Powered