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[Serpentium]

If the Gods were to actually participate in any Major Religion's affairs, then I might have a few worries, but they seem to avoid them like the plague. Can't say I blame them. Talk about mistaking the map for the territory! Every time.

Religion is something man should have outgrown years ago. It makes us particularly vulnerable to those who would have us devoted to their cause.
Whether it's extremist politics, or product brand loyalty, we are being exploited through our tendency to over emphasise the "I will serve" dynamic that Religion has had sole control over for centuries. 

[Earthbound Spirit]

If the Gods were to actually participate in any Major Religion's affairs, then I might have a few worries, but they seem to avoid them like the plague. Can't say I blame them. Talk about mistaking the map for the territory! Every time.

Religion is something man should have outgrown years ago. It makes us particularly vulnerable to those who would have us devoted to their cause.
Whether it's extremist politics, or product brand loyalty, we are being exploited through our tendency to over emphasise the "I will serve" dynamic that Religion has had sole control over for centuries.

Defintely post of the year material here.

[Michelle]

Absolutely correct Serp, we should have outgrown religion years ago. Yet here we are. Perhaps as a race, as a people, we just have to believe in something so doing away with religious beliefs may not be an answer. Besides, a religious belief can be a harmless thing even a beautiful and fulfilling thing, yet when people get their politics mixed up with their religion, well....... that's when problems can occur.

Maybe one day we'll grow up enough to realise that.

[Scorched Eartha]

Absolutely correct Serp, we should have outgrown religion years ago. Yet here we are. Perhaps as a race, as a people, we just have to believe in something so doing away with religious beliefs may not be an answer. Besides, a religious belief can be a harmless thing even a beautiful and fulfilling thing, yet when people get their politics mixed up with their religion, well....... that's when problems can occur.

Maybe one day we'll grow up enough to realise that.

It's not people having faith that's the problem, It's people banding together to form religions. We will need gods some of us while ever we continue to breathe. it's a harmless enough pass time if kept within the confines if your own home and hearth. And as long as you maintain some kind of control over your own decision making processes while you're about it. Belief in a deity doesn't have to necessitate blind obedience and surrender to said god's/goddess's every perceived whim and desire.

Growing up doesn't entail ceasing one's belief, but rather ceasing to live under the misapprehension that one need obey all the rules anyone seeks to impose. Immortal or not. That's the issue with the monotheistic faiths as far as I can tell. They have these bloody rule books - all written by people-  and so many adherents seem to think that deviating from the rules is the worst transgression one could commit.

It isn't obviously. If you follow the letter of the law, no matter if it's celestial or secular law and fail to maintain the spirit of it, then you've got things to cock is what we need to recall.

People were given a brain and a conscience and (well that's true for the most part...there's exceptions to every rule obviously, even on this board)  and therefore it's up to them to put both to good use. No use blaming gods for the shyte we inflict on one another. people would be crap to one another without any faith at all....There'd be a lot less of it without organised religion I'll warrant, but you'll never stop people behaving badly to one another for no good reason. If you'll kill for jesus or allah you'd kill for another red herring too...like patriotism or racial purity or even just for commercial gain.

Religion motivates ill will and aggression in spades, but the kind of faith I mean;  Gnosticism. People devoutly following personal paths. I see those as positives in a society. Anything which makes us contemplate our place in the Universe has to benefit the whole, surely?

Religion is made by powerful men to control us, but faith comes from within each individual and ought to help liberate us........or what's the point?

That's what shits me about so many Fundie Christians...they keep touting this free will thing, but seem loathe to ever exert any of it. Because they're in the iron grip of a patriarchal organisation which dictates their every thought and action. Which demands that they resist their every natural urge almost on pain of eternal hell fire.

I dunno how they get the buggers to sign up for it, I really don't.

[Serpentium]

Somewhere down the line, every time, it's because someone wrote stuff down. But as soon as you write something down, it becomes fixed there. And the words that we speak change a lot faster than the words we write down. So old written words are dangerous to take as any sort of absolute (any written words, really)
Language, as it's spoken, has a completely different social dynamic than Language as it's written. It takes things like social context and the subject's reaction, and adjusts it's nuances and emphasis accordingly. On the fly. That's a living thing.


But the longer ago a word, or an idea was written down, the less able it is to translate in a relevant way today. There are new words of power, and ideas appearing every day! Why restrict yourself to a misinterpreted set of absolutes from millennia ago? That was their paradigm. Then. Not our's.


There is apparently a New World Order about to seize all Power. But it''s not. All I see is the tired, old World Order, re-packaging itself in order to keep their greasy snouts in the new trough. If there really was a New World Order, jockeying for a piece of that Pie, this Old World Order would have eliminated it already.


The emerging Godforms are at their most powerful here, and now. To dismiss them as something for our descendants to work on, while we try to understand the Gods of the past isn't really cricket. It's lazy, because anything relevant it says, was only relevant at the time. The Power is in the words, and in the naming of things.


Dangerous stuff, language is, if we take it for granted. All sorts of things can only exist because we have words for them. Etymology of a innocuous sounding word can reveal a heritage of power lying behind it. The names of Gods crop up in place names all the time. Just look at the variations of Bel, Bael, Baal, Bul, in English place names. And that's just one old God. Pan is another one that lends itself well to language. All the words with Pan in are generally his. Panorama, Panic, Panopticon, Pan American, Panacea, Pandemic, Pandemonium, Pan gets about more than you might think. Wandering off topic now. Which was . . . . . ?



Oh, moving from Christianity to Wicca.       

[size=78%][/size]  Sorry folks, I never been either. So. I'm. In. The. Wrong. Thread. It. Seems.   

[Michelle]

You know, whenever I come across long-winded and wordy threads (especially serps) I tend to just skip through them. But those last couple....., Wow! Worth the read, well thought out, and very well written.

If you are like me and just skipped over them, go back and read them. Powerful and relevent, informative and educational. Just what a thread should be.

[dark magus]

Nope...I just skim them as well.

[Michelle]

Damn it! You're supposed to support me on that one. Geeeez!

[dark magus]

Sorry....Serp is a tad too long winded at times and I'm guess'n those are written just for him amyway. It has crossed my mind that he's not attempting to impress anyone but rather attempting to convince himself on the topic at hand. The more wordy, the more convincing he needs. He's a rebelious young discordian to say the least, and while we do humor him, to much praise goes to his head. So please...do refrain from over stimulating him. Ta.     

[Michelle]

I am sure that in other threads I did mention that whilst we try to explain ourselves to others, we can often be explaining the subject to even ourselves.

Through the telling I understand it all the more. It's a natural thing and explains counselling. A counselor often says very little only enough to keep us chatting away. In the end we often solve our own problems - or come to understand something all the more.

[Scorched Eartha]

I thought we all talked to hear the sound of our own voice...or to see our own words in print. Self reassurance innit, forum posting?

Seems churlish to set against Serp's doing it just because he's better at it.

Serp can't hardly help it if he's more entertaining and more knowledgeable than most of the people most of the time.

[Michelle]

Knowledgable? I can bearly understand half the words he uses. It's a deliberate attempt to make himself appear more edu-ma-cated.

Now where did I put that dictionary?

[Serpentium]

Long winded?  You make me sound like an elderly Lurcher that can't catch a Hare!   Full I am, of win.

[dark magus]

I thought we all talked to hear the sound of our own voice...or to see our own words in print. Self reassurance innit, forum posting?

Seems churlish to set against Serp's doing it just because he's better at it.

Serp can't hardly help it if he's more entertaining and more knowledgeable than most of the people most of the time.

So, you agree with me.
Better at it? I really can't say, as with many of his posts, they ramble on, in and out, on and off topic, I lose interest and stop reading.
Entertaining....maybe to some. Knowledgeable....I really don't have an opinion on that. I'd need to see him in action, delivering information on a specific topic without the access to google.

[dark magus]

Long winded?  You make me sound like an elderly Lurcher that can't catch a Hare!   Full I am, of win.

Well, Serp, you are getting on in years and everyone knows, Brits don't age well.
According to a UN report, the average life expectancy for men in the UK is 77 years. With all your self reported experimentation of various substances.........well, there is doubt you'll make it that long. First you start gaining weight, a paunch that you just can't get rid of. Then the eyes and teeth start to go. Closely followed by hearing. The final stages become appearant when the mind starts to fade, can't remember the little things........ yep....see it all the time........too bad....too bad.