I have a perennial (and quite possibly crazy) vision for an Order of Trashmonks.
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Brilliant! There is actually a group of people here in New Orleans who started getting together once a week to pick up trash. They
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I have a perennial (and quite possibly crazy) vision for an Order of Trashmonks.
...A constellation is not an object, it's a pattern of objects visible from a certain perspective. Look from a different perspective, and the pattern disappears.
That's what's going on right now with the raging controversies over the meaning of the word "Pagan." From some perspectives it makes sense, from others it does not. And since no single perspective has authority, neither does any single definition.
...Nature is self-caused, both source and manifestation of all matter, all experience, all thought, all emotion, all life, and all death. We were not created by nature; we have emerged within it, as integral parts of it. In short:
...If the "Pagan" question - i.e. who's Pagan and who isn't - were a political issue, it would decide elections. It's grown that large. It's come to a point where posts don't just reference others, they form catalogs of references to others. It's even spurred sub-issues: the "Christo-Pagan" question and the "Atheist Pagan" question (I have an obvious vested interest in the latter).
But in all this endless talk, few seem to have the balls to say in no uncertain terms what's really going on:
...Last year, there was a tumultuous discussion over Brendan Myers' article on the Wild Hunt. A comment by Sannion hit me like a load of bricks:
My rituals are done to please the gods. Therefore, if you do not acknowledge the existence of those gods then there is absolutely no reason to be in attendance at the rites because — and I know this will come as a shock to some — true worship isn’t about us and what we get out of the experience however much one may, indeed, get out of it. (emphasis Sannion's)
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In the last post, I suggested naturalists can connect to something greater than themselves. Without literal belief in deity or afterlife, they can achieve transcendence. How?
...One of the most common sources of confuzzlement about naturalism is ritual. If you don't believe deities are literally real, then what's the point of ritual? Isn't it just empty play-acting?
Nothing could be further from the truth.
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