Is paganism on the rise in the West?

Wootah · Post by **Wootah** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:35 am

Hi all,

I feel paganism is on the rise in the West. This would be in line with my expectation that, without a Christian foundation, superstition is the natural recourse for creatures such as us that are made to worship. If you don't worship God you will worship something.

Do any atheists find this trend towards superstition and paganism disturbing?

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andr ... _bolivian/

The UN considering a rock as living. Surely that is just old school paganism.

Wootah · Post by **Wootah** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:06 pm

Durban conference mother earth worship?

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andr ... _may_pray/

Gunnarr · Post by **Gunnarr** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:26 pm

As an Atheist, you believe in nothing, there it is in a nutshell, "you believe", the fact you say show me there is no god is unfair if the opposite of show me there is not one is not allowed. It really then falls down to beliefs.

As for the fact I understand that society in my country is Christian based, is through my undoing of that very thought process, it has taken me years to un do it and I was not even a christian.

An example do you receive Christmas cards at work, do you then return them unopened.

Read this it is much better and presenting the subject than me, page 11 onwards, read it all if you like.

http://odroerirjournal.com/?wpfb_dl=1

Too Few Lions · Post by **Too Few Lions** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:18 pm

Gunnarr wrote:As an Atheist, you believe in nothing, there it is in a nutshell, "you believe", the fact you say show me there is no god is unfair if the opposite of show me there is not one is not allowed. It really then falls down to beliefs.

no, that's where you're wrong, you don't understand atheism at all. Atheism isn't the belief in nothing, it is merely the lack of belief in the existence of gods. To say that it's believing in nothing is like saying that not believing in the existence of Santa Claus or the existence of ghosts is believing in nothing.

Gunnarr wrote:As for the fact I understand that society in my country is Christian based, is through my undoing of that very thought process, it has taken me years to un do it and I was not even a christian.
An example do you receive Christmas cards at work, do you then return them unopened.

why would I do that? I don't ever send any xmas cards, but I have no problem with receiving them. If I like them and they don't have any religious imagery they'll sit on the mantlepiece for a couple of weeks, if not I'll just put them in the bin. It would be rather rude to return them unopened, often they're from old friends who don't live near me that I don't get to see very often.It's nice that they want to stay in touch.

Plenty of people I know send xmas cards, and none of them are Christians. It has no Christian connection to them, they're merely sending greeting cards to their nearest and dearest at a midwinter festival time that most probably predates Christianity by millennia. Indeed one of my friends always sends out 'Merry Mithrasmas' cards every year as that god also claimed the winter solstice for his birthday.

To say you can't do things that celebrate a midwinter solstice festival because the Christians appropriated it in the fourth century seems to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I can celebrate the festival without any Christianity being involved.

Gunnarr wrote:Read this it is much better and presenting the subject than me, page 11 onwards, read it all if you like.

http://odroerirjournal.com/?wpfb_dl=1

thanks I'll give it a look

Gunnarr · Post by **Gunnarr** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:29 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

You want to be an Atheist, you have no belief in a god, not a belief in no god, all this is just semantics.

What you want to do is to critisise peoples beliefs from what you believe to be the intellectual high ground, they can not examine you evidentially because there is nothing when push comes to shove to look at, with the way you twist words anyway.

I disagree, you believe there are no gods, so I will always view you as godless.

That to me is a belief, you will not change my mind ever on this matter, your lack of belief in gods shows to me the educated intellectual believing they do not need a belief structure in a religious ideology, because they are to bright to be fooled, like us religious people.

You believe you are correct and I disagree, so there this must end.

Goat · Post by **Goat** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:05 am

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/atheism

Gunnarr wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

You want to be an Atheist, you have no belief in a god, not a belief in no god, all this is just semantics.

What you want to do is to critisise peoples beliefs from what you believe to be the intellectual high ground, they can not examine you evidentially because there is nothing when push comes to shove to look at, with the way you twist words anyway.

I disagree, you believe there are no gods, so I will always view you as godless.

That to me is a belief, you will not change my mind ever on this matter, your lack of belief in gods shows to me the educated intellectual believing they do not need a belief structure in a religious ideology, because they are to bright to be fooled, like us religious people.

You believe you are correct and I disagree, so there this must end.

That depends on which dictionary you now, doesn't it?

From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/atheism

ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun 1. atheism - the doctrine or belief that there is no God
godlessness
religious orientation - an attitude toward religion or religious practices
theism - the doctrine or belief in the existence of a God or gods
2. atheism - a lack of belief in the existence of God or gods
unbelief, disbelief - a rejection of belief
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. Â© 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

Too Few Lions · Post by **Too Few Lions** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 11:20 am

thanks Goat for the dictionary link.

Gunnarr, you just don't understand what atheism is, plain and simple. You have a faulty idea that atheism is 'like a religion' and 'a belief in nothing', and I imagine you're blindly going to stick to it, even if it's wrong.

At the end of the day I'm an atheist and I know what my atheism means. Just as you have your own definition of heathen, and I'll accept that you know what a heathen is as you call yourself a heathen.

You also claim that I 'criticise peoples beliefs' but where have I done that in this thread?

You are right in saying that I 'do not need a belief structure in a religious ideology' and that pretty much sums my atheism up.

Gunnarr · Post by **Gunnarr** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:34 pm

Too Few Lions wrote:I imagine you're blindly going to stick to it, even if it's wrong.

Tell me then in your words.

Too Few Lions · Post by **Too Few Lions** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:46 pm

it's just the lack of belief in the existence of gods.

Gunnarr · Post by **Gunnarr** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:40 pm

Too Few Lions wrote:it's just the lack of belief in the existence of gods.

So you people are about lacking in something?,

I thought I would have had a quite insightful post here but instead get someone elses thoughts see previous post.

Gunnarr · Post by **Gunnarr** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:48 pm

Goat wrote:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/atheism
Gunnarr wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

You want to be an Atheist, you have no belief in a god, not a belief in no god, all this is just semantics.

What you want to do is to critisise peoples beliefs from what you believe to be the intellectual high ground, they can not examine you evidentially because there is nothing when push comes to shove to look at, with the way you twist words anyway.

I disagree, you believe there are no gods, so I will always view you as godless.

That to me is a belief, you will not change my mind ever on this matter, your lack of belief in gods shows to me the educated intellectual believing they do not need a belief structure in a religious ideology, because they are to bright to be fooled, like us religious people.

You believe you are correct and I disagree, so there this must end.
That depends on which dictionary you now, doesn't it?

From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/atheism
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun 1. atheism - the doctrine or belief that there is no God
godlessness
religious orientation - an attitude toward religion or religious practices
theism - the doctrine or belief in the existence of a God or gods
2. atheism - a lack of belief in the existence of God or gods
unbelief, disbelief - a rejection of belief
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. Â© 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

Well I always hope that when someone puts up a link to reinforce their opinion, then copy and paste they do it in full.

I hope anyway, I will post the correct part of your source which is;

1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.

Not the thesaurus aspect.

As I have stated you guys can be godless, it is just not the way of humanity, just those in my opinion who see themselves elite and better educated and more informed than us religious people.