Posted on 05/04/2002 7:45:25 PM PDT by Tomalak
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson, 1781
And intolerant ones at that. It's interesting to note that many who fled religious-based persecution in England, ended up practicing their own religious persecution once they established their own colony/beachhead in the New World. Rhode Island (via Roger Williams) was perhaps the first colony/region to extend *real* religous freedom to people who did not necessarily acknowledge/practice the religion of the colony.
Fantasy and paganism are not necessarily always and immediately evil, as you seem to assume. There were virtuous pagans, such as the Roman Cicero. But Cicero have access to Christianity and then reject it, as many people do today.
Some wiccans are probably well-meaning and on balance more good than evil. But dabbling in that sort of thing can be very dangerous, and it can certainly turn into evil by degrees.
Whatever contempt I have for Wicca, I don't have that same dislike for individual Wiccans. Most of them are pretty dim and silly people, looking for a meaning that in fact only Christ can give them. I do find the general sense that people somehow believe Wicca to be worthy of the respect you would give to Buddhism or Judaism worrying though. Wicca is not a serious faith, and it is a loathesome doctrine so far as it exists at all. More to the point, it is a cynical attempt to cash in on the desires of rather unhappy young women to exert some sort of supernatural control over their lives.
"Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." --H.L. Mencken
As for the terrible rise of neo-paganism, some of my best friends are pagans, no big deal. Instead of decrying all this supposed evil these people need to be asking themselves why people are fleeing Christianity in droves.
Chesterson should stick to topics he knows. When one stops believing in God they turn to believing in themselves. At least some do. Like everything else in this world gross generalizations will be wrong more often than they're right. With 6 billion people on the planet predicting the hows, whys and results of any individual thought within any individual person is an excercise in foolishness.
>>Yes, it's a good analysis. As Chesterton and others have >>said, if you stop believing in God, you do not end up >>believing in nothing, but in anything. People desperately >>need some kind of magic, transcendence, higher meaning, >>or imaginative richness in their lives. If they lack the >>gift of real religion they may turn to harmful >>substitutes.
Of course, you (and Chesterton) were only speaking for yourselves (not all of humanity). Not all of us are so weak as to be unable to accept a vast world of uncertainty. We aren't all "desperate" for an explanation of the "big questions" of life. Those who are "desperate" to fulfill such a void will do so according to their upbringing. If you're born a Muslim AND you are an individual incapable of dealing with uncertainty, you will calm that uncertainty by believing in the Muslim religion your parents bring you up in. Ditto for Christianity, Judaism, etc. Sure, adult-conversions do occur, but (by-and-large) people who need an explanation for the uncertainties of life end up using the (religious) explanation their parents gave them.
>>General concern for your fellow man and your culture >>and society? If you only care about your immediate >>family, why post on a political board at all?
You sound like a "greater good" liberal. But, I'll humor you.
Care about what? I only care if it negatively impacts society. Otherwise, the religious practices/observances of others does not concern me in the least. Should I care what/who/how people worship if it does not impact society?
Rubbish. Chesterton said that if people don't believe in God they believe in anything. He was not talking about me or himself. He was talking about everyone. Now either he was right or he was wrong, but he was making general claims.
Well, I agree with you. And here is the crunch. Does it make a positive impact on society to have witchcraft revered as some sort of realistic, respectable doctrine? To have Wiccans honestly (in their mind) describe their cult as some sort of morally based ideal? I think it is in society's interest that such people be countered. Surely you agree that Christianity must be supreme above pagan, immoral superstition?
>>That's because the "fled religious persecution" line >>about the colonists is 100% BS. They were looking to >>establish single religion zones.
I don't know what their intentions were ... so I can't judge whether their reasons were genuine or not. All I can judge is the historical reality of what the colonies became ... and it was not *true* religious freedom. For example, people were often forced to pay the salaries of clergy belonging to the colony-approved religion. And you were considered lucky to not be harrassed for acknowledging a religion/denomination not recognized by the colony.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.