Penni, you really shouldn't put ideas into Del's head about running away with me!! I do believe it has crossed his mind many times before, and the vision of me dancing in the moonlight and hugging trees might just get his heart beating pretty fast or something!
I must have really misunderstood this paragraph in your post:
<However I think your post is an example of what I meant by "paean of praise to
paganism". I was using the least pejorative definition of Paganism-- as the absence of
religion. You are most certainly a pagan by that definition and you have written as if that
were an excellent way to be (which it may be-I certainly didn't argue with you---you
don't have to defend that!) Neither of your definitions -"worship of nature" nor
"satanism"- is mentioned in the definition in my AHD. But just as paganism can turn into
satanism, Christianity can turn into bigotry. MAN JUST DOES THIS CRAP.>
While I agree with your conclusion in the last sentence, using phrases like "the least pejorative definition of paganism", and "neither of your definitions-'worship of nature' or 'satanism'" led me to believe that you did not understand what paganism really is, but had instead somehow absorbed the negative bias that this society throws up around it. Obviously, from the structure of your sentence I thought you were associating satanism with paganism.
Del is right when he talks about the prejudice against atheists in this society, as is evidenced by the George Bush quote. How many decades will it be before an atheist is president? A long, long, time I bet, because most of America is Christian and there is a really deep distrust there. Even though it is not true, most people assume that people in America who are not religious are not as moral or ethical as Christians. Hitler's Catholicism is a little trickier, in my opinion. While he was a very evil man, there was indeed centuries of prejudice against the Jews in Europe because of negative writings about them in the New Testament, and he would have absorbed that in his religious studies as a child. He used those feelings to full advantage. That is why the Pope just apologized. My mission in writing about this stuff is not really to cause further polarization, although it may seem that way. It is to point out that everyone should really own their own belief systems, and understand them, and not automatically assume that people hiding behind the cloak of religion are harmless, or even good. I know that you already feel that way.
Could we talk about something else now? Would you like to share your chocolate cherry cake trick with us? That is one of my most favorite flavor combinations in the world. |
