14-year old Pakistani girl activist shot by Taliban

[Queequeg]

Respectable Paganism died in the 6th Century with the last followers of Iamblichus and Plotinus.

[merithyn]

Respectable Paganism died in the 6th Century with the last followers of Iamblichus and Plotinus.

I'm not sure how the resurrgence of the past couple hundred years is less respectable. Nor why you care so much as to have such a strong opinion on how others tap their spiritual side.

[Queequeg]

Plotinus was a genius. Gerald Gardener made Joseph Smith look like Augustine served in Philo. Totally unworthy of the horrifying faiths they ape.

[garbon]

Plotinus was a genius. Gerald Gardener made Joseph Smith look like Augustine served in Philo. Totally unworthy of the horrifying faiths they ape.

What does that have to do anything? How is that not true for many followers of faiths today (including followers of faiths like Christianity that haven't gone defunct but certainly changed with time)?

[Viking]

Respectable Paganism died in the 6th Century with the last followers of Iamblichus and Plotinus.

http://historyofphilosophy.net/

I love this podcast.

[Viking]

Respectable Paganism died in the 6th Century with the last followers of Iamblichus and Plotinus.

I'm not sure how the resurrgence of the past couple hundred years is less respectable. Nor why you care so much as to have such a strong opinion on how others tap their spiritual side.

It is less respectable because the ancients cared if it was true. But do not that these old pagans were borderline deists since they (we at least the neo-platonists) believed in the one god, the unity, the form of forms. These guys were not the pagans of the kind "Zeus lives on Mt Olympus", they were more like "Divine Plato figured it out what the nature of the one God is."

They figured out from (what they thought were first principles) that there was only one god and that was the form of forms itself. That is what made them respectable. These guys did not trapse around forest clearings at midnight with drums and aroma candles.

[garbon]

Also who says that any given neo-pagans belief stem from a Greaco-Roman tradition? There are plenty of other pagan faiths on which to draw inspiration.

[merithyn]

Plotinus was a genius. Gerald Gardener made Joseph Smith look like Augustine served in Philo. Totally unworthy of the horrifying faiths they ape.

Gerald Gardener was only one of hundreds of people who brought the resurrgence of Paganism, and he was late to the party, at that. His only claim to fame was bringing about the practice of Wiccanism in the 1950s, probably the most well-known of the Pagan faiths today, but by no means the only one or the earliest.

What about the Druid traditions that started 300+ years ago in England and came to the states 200 years ago? Very few of them claim anything whatsoever to do with the ancient traditions other than the name. They used the term because it seemed appropriate to call their nature-based philosophy something that others would recognize and understand on sight.

The reality is that there are hundreds of belief systems that fall under the "Pagan" label, and most of them look nothing like what you're describing. Some use the old gods and old symbolism because they're familiar, easy to use, and provide a good framework. Some don't use any gods at all, instead prefering to worship the idea of a God or a Higher Power. Some fall somewhere in between, seeing divinity in both gods, nature, and in the totality of it all. And some are even monotheistic, believing that the old gods are all parts of a singular divine entity.

It's just not possible to make a blanket statement that all Pagans are one thing or another. In general, they're all spiritual people who believe that there is value in the traditional methods that were used before, and that those methods can be used in some fashion today. Beyond that, it's pretty much a crapshoot what you're going to come up with. Some may not be so easy to respect, while others are actually pretty interesting and worth looking more deeply into.

And just like I tell my kids, spirituality is such a personal thing that unless someone is using their religion or spiritual path to harm others, it's really none of our business how people get from Point A to Point B in their spiritual lives.

[Viking]

Also who says that any given neo-pagans belief stem from a Greaco-Roman tradition? There are plenty of other pagan faiths on which to draw inspiration.

Who said that neo-paganism has to stem from Greco-Roman models? The late Classical Pagans were brought up as the last example of respectable pagans.

[merithyn]

Also who says that any given neo-pagans belief stem from a Greaco-Roman tradition? There are plenty of other pagan faiths on which to draw inspiration.

Who said that neo-paganism has to stem from Greco-Roman models? The late Classical Pagans were brought up as the last example of respectable pagans.

As garbon said, it's about drawing spiritual inspiration. I know that you don't see the value in that for yourself, but surely even you recognize that there must be value in finding spiritual inspiration for many or religions wouldn't exist at all.

[Queequeg]

Also who says that any given neo-pagans belief stem from a Greaco-Roman tradition? There are plenty of other pagan faiths on which to draw inspiration.

I said respectable. Slaughtering captured soldiers for Tiwaz, forming Thor's hammer out of the entrails of Christians, or ritual cannibalism to honor Perun isn't respectable. It was hideous, horrifying superstition.

[Neil]

Spirituality. 

[Ed Anger]

Every Wiccan I've met has been a total fruit loop.

[CountDeMoney]

Every Wiccan I've met has been a total fruit loop.

Worse than the granola-birkenstocks-patchouli-hairy pits crowd, definitely.

[merithyn]

Also who says that any given neo-pagans belief stem from a Greaco-Roman tradition? There are plenty of other pagan faiths on which to draw inspiration.

I said respectable. Slaughtering captured soldiers for Tiwaz, forming Thor's hammer out of the entrails of Christians, or ritual cannibalism to honor Perun isn't respectable. It was hideous, horrifying superstition.

Wow. I didn't realize that modern Pagans did that! Well, since you put it that... oh wait. They don't. 

Coming from your background, I would think you would be a little more understanding (and certainly less scathing) about alternative religions from the The Big Three. Surely you recognize that people have a right to find their own way without having to bend to what's most common or understood or known.