I'm not sure, is witchcraft associated with being pagan? Wicca is a religion because it has a large following and is no more diverse than Christianity or Islam. So being Wiccan is not being pagan. Wiccan are associated with witchcraft, therefore witchcraft is not necessarily pagan. Therefore, being Pagan has no requirement for dealing with witchcraft.
Therefore, being Pagan just means anyone associated with metaphysical or spiritual thoughts. Anyone who is a separatist and does not fully accept ALL tenants proctored by religious leaders is by definition a Pagan; someone who has different beliefs than a prescribed religious doctrine.
Therefore, the vast majority of all persons claiming to be of some religious doctrine, are actually Pagan. Hence, Pagan's are by far the vast majority of all persons living today.
The double standard: Those not wanting to be persecuted by their peers, adopt a religion for political reasons rather than heart-felt reasons. They offer respect to a religious order that persecutes them, while showing disrespect to the non-religion passion through which they truely identify. Therefore most people suffer self-esteem problems attributable to lack of self-respect because they wilfully suppress their true feelings about metaphysical topics.
Metaphysics is just an area of science not rigorously researched and documented. Up until recently, "quantum entanglement" could have been associated with magic or metaphysical phenomena. But now it is reproducible in laboratories. Witchcraft would be very interesting to document using scientific investigation techniques; especially quantum mechanics. Because significant influence can be identified from seemingly unrelated points of interest.
Religion is rigorously researched and documented, but wilfully interpreted to promote self interest; greed. Most Preachers are con-artists scamming people by telling them what they want to hear. Of all the Preachers I've ever met, I only respect one. I do not share his beliefs, but he lives his life based upon the core of his beliefs; and not the power of the dollar.
Universalism promotes being an active, cognitive, part of the Universe.
These are three (3) very different spiritual concepts. Currently, I'm leaning toward Universalist. I know I have influence on everything and everyone around me, and they upon me. I understand to some degree "quantum entanglement" and its' connections throughout the Universe, my body, and my mind. So do not need to accept the illogical contradictions taught by religions to have a plausably conceivable connection to the Universe. The more I study about the connections that universally apply to broad systems of consideration, the more I realize actual actions that I knowingly take to cause actual physical responses with which I can observe and interact.
I've lost faith in there being a single god. There are likely trillions of beings so advanced that the word god would no longer have meaning. People have been around for about 100,000 years and technologically developed for less than 100 years; while the Universe is more than 14 billion years old, with billions of planets currently existing similar to Earth. And every 2 million years, billions of different planets evolving similar to Earth. That would be 7,000, 000, 000, 0000 planet similar to Earth. Many of which formed more than 14 billion years ago. At what stage of evolution/technology are those peoples/beings?
Faith is a starting point, whose intended purpose is to be destroyed by Truth. Lately, I've been feeling mentally comfortable with being a very small, but knowing, part of the Universe.
Yes you are one as used in bible and of original meaning of the word
Original word-Origin: Latin 1325–75; ME - worshiper of false gods or more than one god or no god. orig. civilian (i.e., not a follower of Christ (that would include those who claim to be but don't follow or lost standing as stated in the book),
Among the many impressive monuments that are visited by tourists to Rome, Italy, is the Pantheon. This masterpiece of Roman architecture is one of the few buildings there that remain substantially as they were in ancient times. Begun by Agrippa in about 27 B.C.E., it was rebuilt by Hadrian about 120 C.E. One remarkable feature of this structure is its huge 142-foot [43 m]-diameter dome, surpassed in width only in modern times. The Pantheon was originally a pagan temple, a "place for all gods," which is the meaning of the original Greek word. (You believe not in one God--so yes you are a pagan by those standards)
(Today, it is still considered a great Roman Catholic church. Laugh--which is kind of odd isn't it? )
" Anyone who is a separatist and does not fully accept ALL tenants proctored by religious leaders is by definition a Pagan; "--not according to the book as many religious leaders are false teachers. But many of those leaders would say that
"The double standard"--true " Most Preachers are con-artists scamming people by telling them what they want to hear. --true the book says they tickle the ear of the people and that is why they follow them. People like that (look at the net)
"Faith is a starting point, whose intended purpose is to be destroyed by Truth." --Hmm I don't agree here. Real Faith has foundation to believe so, I think.
Even science (which I dearly love) requires faith. Science REQUIRES faith. And in a lot of different ways.
Let's start with things maybe everyone will agree with and not get to deep. Many scientific experiments take a long time. Medical studies often go on for decades or more. Do you think a person without faith can really engage in a project where he will not know the outcome until half his life has gone by? Or perhaps beyond? It takes a LOT of faith and a certain foundation to believe what many times has been proved as fact later
Often the amount that any scientist can actually verify is really very, very small. Even a scientist must often choose to either take 99% of everything he knows on complete faith or operate in a much, much smaller framework than everyone else around him. Many of our most famous scientists are such simply because they DIDN'T believe something everyone else had stopped thinking about long ago. Skepticism is a valuable trait to a scientists, but total skepticism gets you pretty much nowhere.
If we want to get metaphysical, there are also the blocks upon which science is founded... things that may seem so obviously true to a scientist that he never thought to question them. How do we KNOW that the universe follows rules? Or that our memories are accurate? That our senses relay accurate information? That our reason is capable of appreciating what's going on? If these things aren't true, then all of science is probably impossible. And many of them are completely beyond the scope of science to determine. So what do scientists (or more people, for that matter) do? They just take them on faith.
Of course in many cases all of the things I've mentioned may be very good things to have faith in. The faith may seem well-grounded. Science, as a subset of philosophy, tries to make as few assumptions as possible. But there ARE assumptions that MUST be taken on faith - a point even Aristotle took great pains to point out.
"So do not need to accept the illogical contradictions taught by religions to have a plausibly conceivable connection to the Universe"------And what contradictions are those? The ones man has interpreted as right or what books are contradicting do you mean--you mean like the bible? How so? You are right you do not need to accept to have a plausibly conceivable connection to the Universe. You can feel that without it. Acceptance of the bible is about salvation-Paradise lost to Paradise regain--that theme runs through the whole book from beginning to end.
Just another view James. Always liked your blogs and thoughts. I remember yahoo and reading them all. Even the ones that went over my head-but you explained them well. Food for the mind.
Paganism has nothing at all to do with metaphysics, religion or spirituality. There may be some who are Pagans and into metaphysics but the two are not related.
jamesbdunn wrote on Nov 4, '10, edited on Nov 4, '10
When I use the term "metaphysics", I'm using it loosely to describe:
any consequence of actions that seem to be somewhat repeatable, but not scientifically attributable.
Things that have happened in my life that fall in this regard:
1) As a person of about 9 years old, and having a good relationship with my sister. My grandfather, whom I trusted, was working on a clock and my sister and I were playing around him. He then claimed to be missing a screwdriver and accused one of us for taking it. He continued to drive a wedge between my sister and I. Both my sister and I trusted my grandfather, so we accused each other. Finally after half an hour, my grandfather smiles and says he had it all along. Too young to understand being taught a lesson about unreasonable trust in authority, I hated my grandfather for hurting the relationship between my sister and myself. I began wanting him to die. This went on for 3 days and then he died.
Did I cause this? Or did I know he was going to die and this is how I dealt with that knowledge?
2) At about 12 I was playing roulette with my neighbors kids. Very introverted, I never spoke out. Before the ball was thrown I announced, "the next time the ball will land on red 23". Subsequently it did. Never before, and never since have I done something similarly.
3) I was sitting in class at WMU taking a course from an instructor that I liked. A fog appeared around him. As an interesting toy to play with, I tried to intensify the fog. He was not to be seen again until 6 months later due to health.
4) I was at a Taco Bell in San Francisco, and I passed a sign in a sidewalk every few days that was crooked. As an amusing experiment I began visualizing the packing of sand under the post of the sign for about a week in my occasional spare time. Upon my next visit to Taco Bell the sign was straight.
Since then, whenever I start having a certain feeling, I think of a flat-washer in a boat I used to have. The hope is that whatever influence I do have is directed into something inanimate instead of into someone.
Any number of science attributable things could have occurred (smell of pending death, overhearing workers planning to fix the sign, professor moving in some way...I can't explain red-23). But these fall into metaphysics because they are not supported by common scientific understanding.
jamesbdunn wrote on Nov 4, '10, edited on Nov 4, '10
Haddi,
I agree with the value of Faith in science. But Faith is only useful in science as a starting point (assumptions). We describe an environment where we want a result to live.
We "make the best use of what we can relate" to "produce something useful" repeatedly.
I've created a method called "Result Management" that allows for constructing an environment so that desired results have a high probability of needing to happen.
This is part of scientific investigation, though my method goes a step further to ensure the "result" becomes self-sustaining.
The problem is that sustainable destructive behaviors are as implementable as sustainable constructive behaviors. Individuals profit more from destructive behaviors, while societies benefit more from constructive behaviors.
Regarding assumptions and the inadequate nature of science and metaphysics:
As humans our mental capacities are severely limited. We can not interact with the Universe with any certainty. In my opinion, the Universe lives in a system of systems involving diverse points of "confluence" that we can see and interact with. However, the multi-dimensional webbing of energies that compose the Universe(s) can currently be only sensed by rudiment means, with many, if not most, energy confluences (active interactive effectors like photons, electrons, meson, quark...seen as energy, matter, quantum entanglement... ) not able to be modeled by anything that humans have created thus far. As such we chiefly work with repeatable relationships.
That's a ball. I see a ball. The ball is round. When I hold the ball it's rubbery. Therefore (relationship) When I throw the ball it will bounce and I can expect the ball to repeat it's behavior. (relationship) And if I impart the correct trajectory, the ball will bounce into the pail.(relationship) And if I look into the pail I can verify that the ball bounced into the pail.
Does the ball exist, or is it a dream? Is the ball real or a virtual representation?
There is only one truth that my little mind can be certain of. "Something exists"
Scientific Investigation just attempts to eliminate contradictory infomation.
Religion promotes the use of contradictory information.
Bible, page 1, Genesis: All the heavens and the Earth were created in 6 days.
God supposedly created the Universe. We know through greater controlled effort than all religions combined that the Universe is 14+ billion years old, the Earth 4.7+ billion years old. Therefore the Universe was created more than 10 billion years before the Earth. If someone believes God created the Universe, than they must believe the Universe to be the written works of God. So the Bible directly contradicts the written work of God. Christianity makes no attempt to eliminate that contradiction by any method other than short-cycle circular logic (rationalizing that it must be a god's day). Or any number of other short-cycle circular logic attempts to support an irrational set of statements.
Faith is meant to be destroyed by truth. Science continuously attempts to destroy faith by increasing the body of knowledge and eliminating contradiction. Religion attempts to force contradiction to support a forced and concrete faith. Truth can never be found in religions, because faith prevents actively and logically seeking the truth.
I am totally grateful for my life and the Universe. I can not imagine asking some deity to support forever my afterlife. That would be evilly beyond greed.
Paganism has nothing at all to do with metaphysics
Tantalite,
Interesting, I just realized that for me I'm greatful for the Universe, regardless of whether it is cognitive or not.
Until just now, the word pagan referred to someone who believes to some degree that something other than human has an influence upon them that is cognitive. Therefore, metaphysical by the description I used previously.
However, now, at this moment, I can see where a person can be grateful and honoring to something that has no cognitive component. In this case a person could have offerings to the Universe or some entity within it, and those thoughts and feelings might impart cognitive influence on the Universe from that person. So a Pagan could have a passive show of respect which has no metaphysical component like Buddism.
Or an active controller of the Universe in the case of witchcraft, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Voodoo...
Is this similar to how you describe being Pagan? Showing respect to something other than human.
But Faith is only useful in science as a starting point. We describe an environment where we want a result to live.
We "make the best use of what we can relate" to "produce something useful" repeatedly.
I've created a method called "Result Management" that allows for constructing an environment so that desired results have a high probability of needing to happen.
This is part of scientific investigation, though my method goes a step further to ensure the "result" becomes self-sustaining.
Yes, I can see your point. We need good results added or we will be like an animal who will go nowhere and nothing is really accomplish by chasing his same short tail, over and over.
"Result Management"- Be very interesting to read the story there
"The problem is that sustainable destructive behaviors are as implementable as sustainable constructive behaviors. Individuals profit more from destructive behaviors, while societies benefit more from constructive behaviors." I agree
Determine the Result you seek Do a Thought Map of the Qualities necessary to support the result Do a Thought Map of the process needed to create and support those Qualities List the Qualities across the top of a spreadsheet List the process steps down the first column of a spreadsheet At each intersection of process step and Quality, enter a number between 1 and 9 based upon how strongly they are related. Sum each row Sum each column weak rows indicate that the step in its present form does not strongly support the system of Qualities weak columns indicate that the desired Quality is not strongly supported by the system of process steps
Adjust process steps and Qualities repeatedly until there is strong correlations.
I'm intentionally leaving out many many of the related considerations to prevent destructive abuse by those people whom have poor self-esteem and equally poor character.
hadenough1 wrote on Nov 4, '10, edited on Nov 4, '10
Sounds a lot like a Science formula
I understand how that can be abused I'll have to try that on something. Just a test. See my findings. In this case I don't think we would all not come up with the same conclusion -would we? More on preference? (which doesn't make it a science based on undebatable fact) Or am I missing something?
Interesting-(and not to much math-laugh. Oooh if my math could only match my science interest)
Paganism has nothing at all to do with metaphysics 