Guest - The day I need an anonymous... Someone... to explain for me!!!

Ake & Hawk, since you asked,

Well, according to the OED pagan means that I hold religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions, which is accurate, if somewhat vague. To be a little more precise, I'm germanic pagan, without the stoooopid right wing/nazi notions of blood/racial purity.

I do my best to be the best that I can, without constant recourse to my gods to tell my whether I'm right, wrong, or useless. I do not believe that human-written dogma (call it bible, talmud or q'ran) is the be-all & end-all of human morality. This is, perhaps, my biggest quibble with christianity. You can be the most worthless, useless loser ever born, but all you've got to do is say "sorry". You don't have to try, you don't have to fulfill your potential; as long as you're suitably apologetic, Jesus (& god) loves you...

So, a la the Middle Ages, spend the whole of your life being a 24-carat git, but spend the last 5 minutes apologising & regretting... Yer laughing... Who is right? Who wants to judge 500 years ago & say that they were wrong? That's what they believed then...

I cannot explain or define everything that I feel. I have no one source of dogma (call it bible, talmud or q'ran) that I can refer you to & say "This is what my god says". But then I consider that a plus point. I've had one or two try to tell me that "The gods say..."

Well, they can fuck off. If the message is that important, I reckon my gods will tell me personally; & loudly, so's I can't mistake the message! ;-) It hasn't happened yet, so I continue to muddle through, doing the best that I can, & in 50 years or so we'll see whether I've got it right or not...

No-one stands between me & my gods. *I* get it right, or *I* get it wrong. There's no pope or priest that could mediate for me. There's no pope or priest that I would allow to mediate for me. It's down to me to do what I think is best. No mediators, no excuses, no justification. Just me & what I've done throughout my life. I reckon, after 80 (give or take a few) years, that'll be a fair indication of what I am & what I did. If I still need an intermediary at that point, either I'm a fuck-up, or god is! (I don't have a good opinion of lawyers, BTW! ;-) )

My take on paganism amounts to:

This is the world that I live in.

I must do the best that I can within that world.

My beliefs are rooted in nature, but not irrevocably tied to it.

I could do more to reduce my 'footprint', but, generally, it would be an almost entirely useless self-sacrifice that would achieve very little.

Pragmatism!

I aim for the best that I can, knowing that I will not achieve what I might wish, but seeing how well I can do. If my efforts help or inspire others, so much the better, but I'm not here to preach & each must find their own way.

Because I desire the freedom to find my own way, I must allow others equal freedom. However, if their choices conflict with mine, I must inevitably fight for that which I believe in, figuratively or (if I think it will be effective) literally.

I do not live without regard to others, but ultimately I must do right by 'myself'. "Faith, folk, family" defines an expanding, but still limited, group of people (family, BTW, certainly includes those on Mudcat that I have met only met through the ether, but have still learnt to respect). I cannot know all the limitless mass of humanity. I can only hope that I am an influence for the greater good upon those that I know. Therefore, I am the best that I know how to be to those around me.

If I am loved, I return that love with interest, if I am attacked, I return that violence with (appropriate) interest.

So far, it seems to have worked pretty well! :-)