Pagans

[Bathilde]

Ok, so what's the deal with pagans? Why do they think that just because you're pagan that automatically means you have to accept every claim made by pagans and you have to be nice no matter what? Seriously, why is it that if I think reiki is bullshit, that means I'm "invalidating" their beliefs? Or if I don't think they're actually married to a goddess, then I'm somehow infringing on someone's UPG? WTF? No, I don't think you come from a long line of witches in a tradition that's hundred and hundreds of years old.

And why do they cry foul when I ask for some evidence?

Does this happen with anyone else, or am I the asshole?

[Shadowcat]

You're just an asshole.

Seriously though, think of what religion the majority of them come from. Christians aren't exactly known for their open-mindedness. They're right and everyone else is wrong, whether they have proof or not.

There is a teeny problem with your arguments sometimes... Not all things can be proven. Reiki, for example. How can anyone prove whether it's truly the manipulation of energy that's working or if it's just placebo? It's one of those believe it or don't kind of things. It CAN'T be proven. The closest proof there is for any of that kind of thing would be Masaru Emoto's water experiments. http://www.unitedearth.com.au/watercrystals.html

[Bathilde]

Well I know not all things can be proven. You can't prove gods for example. Those aren't the things I ask for evidence for. Reiki is provable and disprovable. Studies have shown that aside from helping people relax, it doesn't do anything more than a placebo. And the placebo effect has other things contributing to it. A massage works better than reiki(and costs about the same or less).

[Wulfcempa]

Unfortunately it's not just pagans... sometimes it comes from heathens, too. Only difference is, heathens, by nature, are much more in-your-face with it... even when they're wrong.

I've heard about a zillion times that heathenry is "the religion with homework". I took it seriously... I started doing mine and I never stopped. I suppose I just expected that other heathens were doing the same... but then I get on these mailing lists and people just talk out their back-sides going and coming... not citing references, not producing evidence.

And sometimes they're just blatantly, clearly wrong. (I had a guy argue with me once that the "Norse" weren't an Indo-European culture.) Sometimes I take it upon myself to try and educate them, but most of the time I figure it just isn't worth the effort.

Thing is, I consider myself to know very little and to have much to learn. I get frustrated when I find that people who claim to have been heathen for longer than I don't even know the basics.

Okay, sorry... rant-mode off now.

Yeah... pagans, that was the topic, wasn't it? The Wiccan group that I was with for like three months when I first got back into paganism... they were planning a camping trip. We're all sitting around discussing it and they started talking about fairies. You know, the little Tinkerbell fairies. And they proclaimed, emphatically, that "if you've never seen a fairy before, you'll definitely see them on this trip".

Time to back away... slowly. (Which is pretty much exactly what I did.)

[Bathilde]

Hehe, I think you made a good call there.

[Follower of Odin]

I believe in doing my homework. Reading, reading, reading everything. Sometimes I just want to shake my head.

[skuli]

I'm not a big fan of the label pagan. I mean, its such a broad term. I know so many people that call themselves pagan but dont get any more specific than that. does that make sense? I mean, as a heathen, i am also a pagan but my specific path is that of a heathen. Do those that just call themselves pagan either not know specifically which camp they fall into? maybe they are the cafeteria sort that pick and choose from different pantheons to make up their own thing? I'm just rambling, to each their own I guess but in my mind all pagans are not the same.

[Bathilde]

I don't think pagans are all the same either.

[Wodenborn]

have to agree with the last post entirely

there are wiccans who believe and follow a way - they learn their craft..there are others who dab on a bit of face paint, wear black and cosmic jewellery and announce that they are wiccan because it sounds cool and interesting

its the same scenario we have here with heathenry..

some good and learning, some bad and posing...some extreme and scary

[Bathilde]

Indeed, the fluffatru among us are rightly ridiculed as well. I find public mockery to be beneficial this way, when policing our own. It does give the impression to others that heathens are arrogant and brutish though, hehe.