Thursday 22 May 2008

A little introduction

About this blog, and about me.

No doubt, the name and subject matter of this blog is going to raise the considerable ire of some people on the internet. And since I don't want to go through the tedious job of explaining every single time why my critics are wrong, I'm instead going to write this, so they will have to come up with some creativity in their attacks.

Firstly, the purpose of this blog. This blog's job is to make fun of, mock, satirize and otherwise point out the hilarities of the strange beast called online Paganism. This means Wicca, Ásatrú, any sort of Reconstructionism you care to name, Voodoo, "hedge witches" and other fringe occultists. Why do I want to make fun of them? Simply because most of them are hilariously out of touch with reality, suffer from confused thinking and persecution complexes and, in some cases, are actually completely batshit crazy.

If the above doesn't apply to you, then you have nothing to worry about. Probably.

Of course, someone will say "why are you picking on Pagans?" Its quite simple really - I saw a niche market and decided to seize it. There are hundreds of blogs on the evils of Christianity, Islam, Judaism (though admittedly these are normally run by the fringe lunatics of conspiracy theory, and have disturbing attitudes towards race and Nazi Germany) Hinduism and all the rest.

And lets be honest, there is nothing special about Paganism. The people who join it are no different than the people who join any of these sects. Smaller in number, maybe, but they share similar biological and social backgrounds, educational levels etc. Pagans do not stand out in any particular way, or have any real reason to be considered different from other religions. So there is no reason they wont have their own fundamentalists, crazies, bigots and outright frauds. The only difference is that theirs are 'protected' by being lower profile than the big ones that surround us (and are increasingly being documented by others).

And because some unoriginal twat is eventually going to bring it up, a word on my religion.

Its sad I have to do this, really. But so many Pagans seem to think if they are being criticized, the person doing so must be an extreme Christian of some sort, possibly belonging to the religious right, condemning them to hell for all eternity.

In this case however, no dice.

I am not a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Shintoist, Taoist or belong or identify with any other organized religious group. I have a soft spot for parody religions, such as the Pastafarians and the Church of the Subgenius, but I am, at the end of the day, an Agnostic with an extreme case of scepticism. How extreme? I'm not quite as far developed as say, David Hume, but I'm coming along nicely. I believe that, on the balance of things, there is probably not a God of any sort, but I have no concrete evidence for this. At best, I can respect the Deist position on religion, though I consider it a bit of a God of the Gaps deal. Beyond that...its conjecture, symbolism or delusion, I'm afraid.

Basically, I see any given religion as being no better than any other, except in how they inform the conduct of their adherents. If they move the person to acts of charity, selflessness, aid, resistance to tyranny and bigotry and other noble deeds, then that is all and well. I am not concerned with such people, and indeed wish them the very best.

If they do not, however....if they instead are used to belittle others, play games of dominance, spread obvious falsehoods, promote dangerous political agendas, give false hope, deny others methods to solve their problems or shackle their minds to slavish devotion of a person or ideal...well then, we have a problem.

5 comments:

Modemac said...

(Take two, sorry about that.)

Looks like the SubGenius has already taken a look at pagans. You may be interested in this:

http://www.modemac.com/wiki/Wiccans%2c_Pagans%2c_and_Fluffy_Bunnies

( http://tinyurl.com/5nsdor )

The Wife said...

Ah, wonderful!

This, will prove fantastic reading. Constructive criticism on the pagan sub-culture, not really. Beating them with a stick, I look forward to witnessing it.

And I'm one of those filthy heathens myself! I wonder what this says about me? Am I a *gasp* traitor to my faith?!?!

Excellent work, as usual, my friend. :)

Hume's Spork said...

Modemac: thanks very much for the links. Having just a brief look through now, I can see these being very helpful.

The wife: thanks for the support! I suppose in one way I am doing the Pagan community a service, of sorts, though no doubt it wont be seen that way.

Oh well, I shall tell them I did it all for the lulz.

Anonymous said...

I like cake.

Anonymous said...

Remember the Burning Times!!!!111

*drool*
*slobber*