Saturday 29 November 2008

'What's it like living next door to a nieghbourhood witch?'

I'm not sure whether this comment will get through the system, so I'm posting it here for posterity.

In response to this article about a Pagan couple.

May I ask why articles like this are never written about the various Christian denominations? When you take a real good look, the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths are just as wacky as the Pagan/Wiccan ones. I mean, seriously, the Christians believe in a Jewish zombie, the Jews believe in some of the most immoral stories around and the Muslims believe a bloke rode a Pegasus into the clouds.

Having once been Pagan and knowing a Christian very well, I can quite clearly see that it's all hooey. Pagans, the Abrahamic Faiths, Sikhs, Buddhists and so on - they all believe in magic of various types - why single out the Pagans/Wiccans for nit-picking and fun-poking?

You should widen the net a bit and nit-pick and fun-poke the 'bigger' more 'common' religions as well. Or are we still too embroiled in not wanting to 'offend' anyone, that the Pagans are the only viable target?




Edit Update: Nope, it didn't get through.

4 comments:

Stew said...

No, but Wiccans are crap tho aren't they?

The followers of the big faiths usually have the excuse that they were brought up in thet faith, they believe what their parents believe.

Wiccans, otoh, have rejected their traditional, cultural faith and then chosen, actively chosen, to do this stuff with the spells and incantations and swords and candles and whatnot.

It's so very lame. How can they take step 1: My parents religion is nonsense and then miss step 2: All religion is nonsense?
How did they get to step b: Hey here's one with swords! I'll believe that instead?

Stew said...

ps I typed "thet" for "that"

It's my Zimbabwean accent coming out.

Whisper said...

Stew: *lol* I get what you mean - when I was a teenager I went from Agnostic and brought up to think for myself, to Pagan, because it was appealing on the Matriarchy and promise of magic levels.

Of course, the only Coven I managed to find was full of infighting and hissy-fits, the 'Heathens' were amusing ('Heathens' apparently followed the old Viking religion, and wore Thor's Hammer round their necks and quaffed a lot of ale) but the scary vegetarian Athenian Wiccans were not.

I soon dropped it though, after realising it really was just as stupid as all the other ones.

While I agree though, I still think the other ones should get as much pokery - because they really are all as bad as each other.

Berlzebub said...

And the cognitive dissonance award goes to...

More new-age twaddle. When people cease to believe in God they're ready to believe anything.

Ernesto Forchetto, Gijon, Spain, 29/11/2008 4:04


I have a hypothesis about the Christianity to Pagan transition. Christianity has a supreme being that we all are supposed to answer to. It rewards us by sending good things our way (but the bad things are tests), punishes the heathens (the enemies), and all from asking him for it (if he's in the mood).

From what I understand, Paganism/Wicca is similar but instead of prayers you use spells. The swords, candles, etc. make it more sexy by taking away some of the dullness.

It seems the main difference is guilt. With Christianity and the other monotheistic religions, the Big Kahuna can also read your mind and knows your every action. Basically, even thinking about breaking one of the arbitrary laws is a sin. With P/W, it's mainly your actions that cause the bad things to happen, but otherwise you should just enjoy yourself.

Plus, you might be able to stack up some rocks in your back yard, buy a boatload of scented candles, buy some pretty swords and daggers, and dance around a fire during some arbitrary seasonal and/or lunar transitional period. In the U.S., you might even be able to form a church so you don't get taxed for any of the items you have to buy for your "service".