Wiccans and you.
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Yeah, Abrahamic religions have that attitude to a lot of things. If you killed everyone any of the Abrahamic holy books demanded be killed you'd never have time to do anything else.Shadowstar38 said:
I'm also an atheist. The one thing that struck me with Buddhism is that there are sophisticated concepts in Buddhist philosophy that predate equivalents in western philosophy by a couple thousand years. It's only recently that secular philosophers have caught up and begun to grapple with Buddhist observations about identity and consciousness. In philosophy of mind we've slowly gone from the mind being a discrete 'soul' (as with Locke) to the mind being a 'bag of tricks' that essentially creates a narrative because it's useful (Dennet). The skepticism of the mind as it appears to be in 'first-person' originates in Buddhist philosophy.Deviate said:
It amazes me that Buddhist scholars made solid observations about complex mental phenomena when my ancestral scholars were arguing about exactly how many plagues god smote the Egyptians with during the exodus. (600 according to Rabbi Akiva.)
I obviously don't think they're right about the supernatural bits and reincarnation, but that's pretty damn good for 'blithering idiocy.'
I live in europe and I never met someone who called themselves a Wiccan. I merely know about this religion via the internet and american TV-Series.
Either that is an US-thingy, or I am in the wrong neck of the woods.
Either that is an US-thingy, or I am in the wrong neck of the woods.
I view people who label themselves 'Wiccan' in the same light as I do every other individual who subscribes to a certain religious philosophy: they've found something that they need or want to improve their life.
Admittedly, some part of me does also view religious individuals as a bit naive, but that's a flaw in my character that I can't seem to shed. I try my hardest not to let it affect my judgement, but the moment someone talks about anything mystical I find it harder to take them seriously.
Admittedly, some part of me does also view religious individuals as a bit naive, but that's a flaw in my character that I can't seem to shed. I try my hardest not to let it affect my judgement, but the moment someone talks about anything mystical I find it harder to take them seriously.
That's because most of the exceptions distance themselves from the 'wiccan' community and either associate with the wider neo-pagan community and/or just do their own thing...Deviate said:
I've probably never met one that was real McCoy before, but by and large I find a person is a prat and a (does X) and not is a prat BECAUSE of (X).
Wicca seems like the hipster of religions to me. They pull all this crap out of their arse which doesn't have any basis in anything. It's like it's being different for the sake of being different. It seems to have this attitude that if the established religions don't appeal to you you're allowed to just make up your own crap, but you must have a religion of some kind. As long as you throw in words like "spiritual" then it's just as valid as any other religion and equally immune to scrutiny.
Slightly unrelated story: A few years ago I overheard someone who was a friend of an acquaintance of mine (who I gather was known as an obnoxious prick who loved nothing more than telling people how stupid they were for being religious) questioning a girl who claimed she was Wiccan. He asked her what she actually believed and she told him that she didn't actually know. The only definite thing she was able to say was that her grandmother taught it to her. The rest was extremely vague nonsense or just trying to completely avoid the question.
Slightly unrelated story: A few years ago I overheard someone who was a friend of an acquaintance of mine (who I gather was known as an obnoxious prick who loved nothing more than telling people how stupid they were for being religious) questioning a girl who claimed she was Wiccan. He asked her what she actually believed and she told him that she didn't actually know. The only definite thing she was able to say was that her grandmother taught it to her. The rest was extremely vague nonsense or just trying to completely avoid the question.
Having been heavily involved in drug and rave culture I met quite a few people who would occasionally bang on about crystals and their various "healing properties", had my "aura cleansed" by a young lady waving burning sage or some other crap round me. I generally have to do that thing where you clench up your jaw muscles and adopt a neutral facial expression and nod occasionally saying "mmm...yes...I see..." to stop myself looking like a find it all fairly ridiculous, which I do.
I also had a friend who was about 5 cans short of a six pack who would get into the occult and such on a cyclical basis. He went to a meeting once (probably very drunk) and started trying to "hex" them and got beaten up and thrown out. Heh. He was always good for an insane story.
I also had a friend who was about 5 cans short of a six pack who would get into the occult and such on a cyclical basis. He went to a meeting once (probably very drunk) and started trying to "hex" them and got beaten up and thrown out. Heh. He was always good for an insane story.
