[Oe List ...] Interesting article -- especially for Social Process collection -- common religion triangle and Inner life/other world and all

[James Wiegel]

The Return of Paganism:  Maybe there actually is a genuinelypost-Christian future for America.

By Ross Douthat  OpinionColumnist  Dec. 12, 2018

Here aresome generally agreed-upon facts about religious trends in the United States.Institutional Christianity has weakened drastically since the 1960s. Lots ofpeople who once would have been lukewarm Christmas-and-Easter churchgoers nowidentify as having “no religion” or being “spiritual but not religious.” Themainline-Protestant establishment is an establishment no more. Religious beliefand practice now polarizes our politics in a way they didn’t a few generationsback.

What kind ofgeneral religious reality should be discerned from all these facts, though, ismuch more uncertain, and there are various plausible stories about whatearly-21st century Americans increasingly believe. The simplest of these is thesecularization story — in which modern societies inevitably put away religiousideas as they advance in wealth and science and reason, and the decline ofinstitutional religion is just a predictable feature of a general late-modernturn away from supernatural belief.

But thesecularization narrative is insufficient, because even with America’s churchesin decline, the religious impulse has hardly disappeared. In the early 2000s,over 40 percent of Americans answered with an emphatic “yes” when Gallup askedthem if “a profound religious experienceor awakening” had redirected their lives; that number had doubledsince the 1960s, when institutional religion was more vigorous. A recent Pewsurvey on secularization likewise found increases in the share of Americans whohave regular feelings of “spiritual peace and well-being.” And the resilienceof religious impulses and rhetoric in contemporary political movements, even(or especially) on the officially secular left, is an obvious feature ofour politics.

So perhapsinstead of secularization it makes sense to talk about the fragmentation andpersonalization of Christianity — to describe America as a nation of Christianheretics, if you will, in which traditional churches have been supplanted byself-help gurus and spiritual-political entrepreneurs. These figures cobbletogether pieces of the old orthodoxies, take out the inconvenient bits andpitch them to mass audiences that want part of the old-time religion butnothing too unsettling or challenging or ascetic. The result is a nation whereProtestant awakenings have given way to post-Protestant wokeness, whereReinhold Niebuhr and Fulton Sheen have ceded pulpits to Joel Osteen and OprahWinfrey, where the prosperity gospel and Christian nationalism rule the rightand a social gospel denuded of theological content rules the left.

I wrotea whole book onthis theme, but in the years since it came out I’ve wondered if it, too, wasincomplete. There has to come a point at which a heresy becomes simplypost-Christian, a moment when you should just believe people who claim theyhave left the biblical world-picture behind, a context where the newspiritualities add up to a new religion.

Which is whylately I’ve become interested in books and arguments that suggest that thereactually is, or might be, a genuinely post-Christian future for America — andthat the term “paganism” might be reasonably revived to describe the newAmerican religion, currently struggling to be born.

Afascinating version of this argument is put forward by Steven D. Smith, a lawprofessor at the University of San Diego, in his new book, “Pagans andChristians in the City: Culture Wars From the Tiber to the Potomac.” Smithargues that much of what we understand as the march of secularism is somethingof an illusion, and that behind the scenes what’s actually happening in themodern culture war is the return of a pagan religious conception, which washalf-buried (though never fully so) by the rise of Christianity.

What is thatconception? Simply this: that divinity is fundamentally inside the world ratherthan outside it, that God or the gods or Being are ultimately part of naturerather than an external creator, and that meaning and morality and metaphysicalexperience are to be sought in a fuller communion with the immanent worldrather than a leap toward the transcendent.

Thispaganism is not materialist or atheistic; it allows for belief in spiritual andsupernatural realities. It even accepts the possibility of an afterlife. But itis deliberately agnostic about final things, what awaits beyond the shores ofthis world, and it is skeptical of the idea that there exists some ascetic,world-denying moral standard to which we should aspire. Instead, it sees thepurpose of religion and spirituality as more therapeutic, a means of seekingharmony with nature and happiness in the everyday — while unlike atheism, itinsists that this everyday is divinely endowed and shaped, meaningful and notrandom, a place where we can truly hope to be at home.

In popularreligious practice there isn’t always a clean line between this “immanent”religion and the transcendent alternative offered by Christianity and Judaism.But clearly religious cultures can tend toward one option or the other, and youcan build a plausible case for a “pagan” (by Smith’s definition) tradition inWestern and American religion, which in his account takes two major forms.

First, thereis a tradition of intellectual and aesthetic pantheism that includes figureslike Spinoza, Nietzsche, Emerson and Whitman, and that’s manifest in certainhighbrow spiritual-but-not-religious writers today. Smith recruits Sam Harris,Barbara Ehrenreich and even Ronald Dworkin to this club; he notes that we evenhave an explicit framing of this tradition as paganism,in the former Yale Law School dean Anthony Kronman’s rich 2016 work “Confessionsof a Born-Again Pagan.”

Second,there is a civic religion that like the civic paganism of old makes religiousand political duties identical, and treats the city of man as the city of God(or the gods), the place where we make heaven ourselves instead of waiting forthe next life or the apocalypse. This immanent civic religion, Smith argues, isgradually replacing the more biblical form of civil religion that stampedAmerican history down to the Protestant-Catholic-Jew 1950s. Whether in thesocial-justice theology of contemporary progressive politics or the trans-humanistprojects of Silicon Valley, we are watching attempts to revive a religionof this-world, anew-model paganism, to “reclaim the city that Christianity wrested away from itcenturies ago.”

Thesedescriptions are debatable, but suppose Smith is right. Is the combination ofintellectual pantheism and a this-world-focused civil religion enough todeclare the rebirth of paganism as a faith unto itself, rather than just acultural tendency within a still-Christian order?

It seems tome that the answer is not quite, becausethis new religion would lack a clear cultic aspect, a set of popular devotions,a practice of ritual and prayer of the kind that the paganism of antiquityoffered in abundance. And that absence points to the essential weakness of apurely intellectualized pantheism: It invites its adherents to commune with auniverse that offers suffering and misery in abundance, which means that it hasa strong appeal to the privileged but a much weaker appeal to people who neednot only sense of wonder from their spiritual lives but also, well, help.

However,there are forms of modern paganism that do promisethis help, that do offer ritual and observance, augury and prayer, that dopromise that in some form gods or spirits really might exist and might offersuccor or help if appropriately invoked. I have in mind the countless New Agepractices that promise health and well-being and good fortune, the psychics andmediums who promise communication with the spirit world, and also the world ofexplicit neo-paganism, Wiccan and otherwise. Its adherents may not all beequally convinced of the realities that they’re trying to appeal to andmanipulate (I don’t know how many of the witches who publicly hexed Brett Kavanaughreally expected it to work), but their numbers are growing rapidly; there maysoon be more witches in the United States than members of the United Church ofChrist.

What ancientpaganism did successfully was to unite this kind of popular supernaturalismwith its own forms of highbrow pantheism and civil-religiosity. Thus the elitesof ancient Rome might reject the myths about their pantheon of deities as justcrude stories, but they would join enthusiastically in public rituals thatassumed that gods or spirits could be appealed to, propitiated, honored,worshiped.

To get afully revived paganism in contemporary America, that’s what would have tohappen again — the philosophers of pantheism and civil religion would need tobuild a religious bridge to the New Agers and neo-pagans, and together theywould need to create a more fully realized cult of the immanent divine, anactual way to worship, not just to appreciate, the pantheistic order theydiscern.

It seemslike we’re some distance from that happening — from the intellectuals whomSmith describes as pagan actually donning druidic robes, or from Jeff Bezosplaying pontifex maximus for a post-Christian civic cult. The 1970s, when aD.C. establishment figure like Sally Quinn was hexing her enemies,were a high-water mark for those kinds of experiments among elites. Now,occasional experiments in woke witchcraft and astrology notwithstanding,there’s a more elite embarrassment about the popular side of post-Christianspirituality.

Thatembarrassment may not last forever; perhaps a prophet of a new harmonizedpaganism is waiting in the wings. Until then, those of us who still believe ina divine that made the universe rather than just pervading it —and who have a certain fear ofwhat more immanent spirits have to offer us — should be able to recognize theoutlines of a possible successor to our world-picture, while taking comfortthat it is not yet fully formed.

Ross Douthat hasbeen an Opinion columnist for The Times since 2009. He is the author of severalbooks, most recently, “To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future ofCatholicism.”


 

 

COMMENT OF THE MOMENT

jim kunstler commented December 12:  Saratoga Springs, NY

Andrew Sullivan got it right inNY Magazine this week when he noted that Wokesterism is the replacement du jourfor Christianity. It has its sacred characters (identity groups) and a notionof original sin (white privilege), and requires sinners to apologizeabjectly... but is absolutely unforgiving. That’s how crazy we have become.

Comments 1280

LES commentedDecember 12  As Epictetus, thegrand old man of Greco-Roman philosophy pointed out two thousand years ago itis one thing to talk about philosophy/region and it is another thing to livethe teaching and seek truth.

Middleman  Eagle WI USADec. 12  One of the principle drivers of apost-Christian future is people's need to experience their sexuality withoutthe horrible schism imposed on it by the Christian religion. I once visited anexhibit of sexuality in art in Hamburg, Germany and what struck me the mostabout it was the sad evidence of how Christianity had literally driven a linethrough the center of the body, and above the navel was 'for God,' and below,the devil. People who chose their sexuality over church-sanctioned pietyliterally danced with the devil. Such demonization continues today, in subtler,but still life-destroying forms. This and Christianity's own hypocrisies aboutsexual behavior within their institutions have left many of us to walk awayfrom the faith of our upbringing to find compassion and spirituality in otherways and other communities and fellowships. 

North Carolinacommented December 12  Thecountry is moving away from organized Christianity because people aredisillusioned, defeated, and dismayed by the total corruption of our religiousleaders whether from the Catholic Church or the Protestant churches, see theFort Worth Star Telegram's investigation into sexual misconduct at nearly 1,000churches and organizations affiliated with the independent fundamental Baptistmovement across 40 states and Canada, in which 168 church leaders have been “accusedor convicted of committing sexual crimes against children.” You simply can't bea part of organized religion without encountering human corruption on a massivescale. And it is this corruption, this hypocrisy that ultimately drives peoplefrom churches and organized religion. That is not going to change. Instead,people are going to find other places to connect to the universe, their planet,their family and friends, and themselves to the greater and find God or Goddessout there away from men who are completely corrupt. 

Kjensen commentedDecember 12Burley Idaho  Another pathetic attemptby Mr. Douthat to lament the decline of organized religion. For me it can'tcome fast enough. As for the resurgence of so-called paganism, with its newageism, self-help gurus, revival of ancient religions, it's really the same oldthing that is embodied in the popes, prophets, and the priests that Mr. Douthatwishes were still absolutely preeminent in our society. Yes, in my opinion,these new age religious movements are the same old charlatans just cut from adifferent bolt of cloth.

Ron commentedDecember 12 FloridaDec. 12  Douthat uses the term “paganism” to describevarious New Age and Wicca movements, but he says almost nothing about thepaganism of the Religious Right. Was Nazism, with its symbolism, mass gatherings,and return to a “greater” Teutonic past, pagan? Undoubtedly. And why was itessentially pagan and anti-Christian? Because it exalted the nation state andits leader above all moral considerations. Does that sound familiar? Do we seethat today? Donald Trump and his millions of faux Christian, evangelicalfollowers are the real pagans of our time. (Note that Trump even refused—or wasunable—to recite the Apostles' Creed at G. H. W. Bush’s funeral.)

doughboy commentedDecember 12  Wilkes-Barre,PA  Douthat’s continued use of pagan hides the origin of that term.When Christianity received the official backing of the Roman emperors, itturned on all other religions. Their attacks on Roman, Greek, Egyptian, etcreligion introduced the term pagan to undercut these practices. CatherineNixey’s The Darkening Age and Charles Freeman’s The Closing of the Western Minddetails the harm that this zealotry did. The murder and dismemberment ofHypatia in Alexandria in 415 and the closing of Athens’ Academy in 532 are buttwo illustrations. The Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli wrote, “Theanti-intellectual violence of the Christianized Roman Empire managed to suffocatealmost every development of rational thought for many centuries.” This trenddid not end in the early centuries. The execution of Giordano Bruno in 1600 andthe Inquisition continued the suppression. Blaise Pascal wrote, “Men never doevil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religiousconviction.” This animus remains today whenever atheists protest religioussymbols on public land. How many members of Congress are declared atheists?“Pagans” are neither ignorant nor stupid. Symmachus, in the face of theChristian onslaught, challenged the new faith when he said, “We see the samestars, the sky is shared by all, the same world surrounds us. What does itmatter what wisdom a person uses to seek for the truth?” 

Kaye commentedDecember 12  Connecticut I grew up second-gen in a Neopagan religion. Like mostsecond-gen individuals in new religious movements, I tend to be moreconservative (religiously, not politically) than people who are convertsbecause I was raised in an environment where there were correct and incorrectways of doing worship. This article assumes that "paganism" is amercurial thing that is just "not Christianity." The term paganism isstill sometimes used as a religious slur in opinion pieces describing aperson's lack of morality, and the term is adapted to fit ideas ranging fromatheistic pan(en)theism to the New Age movement. I rarely ever use the term — Icall myself a polytheist. While like a Roman elite I don't believe in theliteral truth of myths, I believe in gods. Almost all of my worship isconducted in the home. Another correction: "explicit neo-paganism"offers help and sense-making practices. Wicca has a moral code based onnon-harming. Polytheist revivalist religions like Hellenism, Asatru, ReligioRomana, and Kemetism draw from the wealth of philosophical and moral writingsin antiquity to offer grounding and solutions to devotees regardless of theissues they are confronting in their lives. We have a resurgence of people inboth Pagan Studies (ex: Chas Clifton) and philosophy (ex: Edward P. Butler, whodoes polytheologies and engages in dialogue with ancient writers like Proclusand Iamblichus). Neopagan movements are not bereft of 201- and 301-level sense-makingpractices at all.

dogma vatcommented December 12  Washington,DCDec. 12Interestingcommentary, but a bit over my head. However, I'll say this- modern life ismaking us weak, lonely people. Too many choices, too much freedom andopportunity, along with the eradication of our Judeo-Christian identity hasdecimated families and enabled our culture to be filled by grunting, flatulentcreatures like our current president on the right and woke religious zealots onthe left. These folks are turning the established order of decency upside downand turning this country into the idiocracy many have feared. We need religionbecause the alternative seems to be Donald Trump or wokeness or something elsethat is totally incoherent.

Walter L. Maroneycommented December 12  Manchester NH  A couple of fundamental misunderstandings here, Ross. First, weare not supposed to be a Christian Nation. Our founders conceived of our polityas determinedly secular. It was not until the Great Awakenings of the early tomid 1800s that Christianity assumed the character of a shibboleth in our publicdiscourse. And the "Under God" and "In God We Trust" memesare Twentieth Century inventions, which have only been part of our nationalfabric for about 70 of our nearly 250 year history. Second, for all your talkof heresy, you miss the obvious fact that American Evangelical Protestantism,with its Prosperity Gospel doctrine and its perverse twisting of the doctrineof election into an us vs. them political/social context (we are the elect onEarth, all others are hellbound) is itself the foremost Christian heresy of ourtime. 

Jocelyn commentedDecember 12  Vista, CA  There are many troubling aspects to this essay, but perhaps themost troubling is the author’s assertion that what paganism (and this term, asapplied to the wide range of practices and beliefs referred to here, is notunproblematic) may appeal to the wealthy and well-off, but what those who areimpoverised and suffering need is help. I was nodding along until it becameclear that what he meant by “help” is belief in divine intervention and/or anafterlife. This completely misses the point that an understanding of the worldas infused with divinity calls - in fact, obligates - us to take better care ofit and one another. Christianity has not historically done a good job of this,and has, unfortunately, used promises of heaven and threats of hell to keeppeople from seeking a more harmonious relationship with one another and theplanet as a whole in this lifetime. To judge what he calls paganism through thelens of Christianity both misses the point, and attempts to colonize the termand practices associated with it, turning them into just another Christiansect. 

Emma commentedDecember 12  IndianaThere is thisinteresting notion at the end of the article -- that there is comfort that the"old way" dictated by the Bible and its interpretation have not beeneclipsed by paganism. I find the opposite comforting. The old way, which serveda specific societal master and has been used in every era as a cudgel against racial,religious (ironically), and sexual minorities, was not wholly positive. Itshould be comforting that the essence of spirituality in the global north isbeing reworked in a more equitable fashion. You will probably find that today'sspiritual adherents are unwittingly closer to the teachings of Jesus than thereligious zealots that claim to be so godly in their actions. 

LJ commentedDecember 12  MA  Overlooked in your essay is the individualizing of spiritualpractices—so Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus may attend a meditation or“satsang” group together, for example. Or non-Jews adopt Kabbalah traditions,etc. People are cobbling together practices from various religions andactivities to express and develop their spiritual sides (even Non-believers canappreciate a walk on the beach....) The commonality all the “great” religionsshare is that the foundation is Love, and that all we are here to “get,”whether Christian, Atheist, Agnostic, Muslim, Humanist, Capitalist, Marxist,etc., is to love one another. That is the sum total of the Game of Life. 

jim kunstlercommented December 12  SaratogaSprings, NY  Andrew Sullivan got it right in NY Magazine this week when henoted that Wokesterism is the replacement du jour for Christianity. It has itssacred characters (identity groups) and a notion of original sin (whiteprivilege), and requires sinners to apologize abjectly... but is absolutelyunforgiving. That’s how crazy we have become.

Androculuscommented December 12  Far Left  Don't worry, Ross, Catholicism and paganism can exist side byside, as they have for centuries in New Orleans. Good Catholics here, withoutconflict or contradiction, can also practice Voodoo, because the two religionscompliment each other. In fact, they are so interrelated that the saints of one(Virgin Mary, St. Patrick ) are seen as the gods and goddesses of the other(Maitress Erzuli, Dambala Wedo). Just let people be, Ross; they can figure outwhat makes them happy or gives them comfort. 

Joseph Hubencommented December 12  Upstate NY  Pagan? Witches? Neither existed as concepts before Christianityand the “demonization” of all beliefs or ways of life that was not “Christian”as defined by “Christians”. Is Douthat condemning or demonizing or belittlingall non-Christians? Are all Hindus or Buddhists or Taoists pagans? They allpre-dated Christianity and were designated pagan by early “Church Fathers”.“modern societies inevitably put away religious ideas as they advance in wealthand science and reason, and the decline of institutional religion is just apredictable feature of a general late-modern turn away from supernaturalbelief.” Supernatural belief is protected by the First Amendment. So is“putting away religious ideas” in favor of science and reason. Could theclinging to “religious ideas” be the real problem? In the world today we allrecognize that religious fervor is the source of global terror. And wheredenial of science and reason are incited to prevent remedies to global warming,poverty, hunger and disease they have the “unintended” consequences we livewith? Marx said religion is the opiate of the people. He was wrong. Religion isthe enemy of reason and science and the exploited wedge that justifies savagecruelty. 

Dave commentedDecember 12  Boston  As a scholar of Religious Studies, I’m sorry to report that it’smy opinion that Mr. Douthat’s propositions are rather uninformed. He iscaptivated by a picture of religions as a set of discrete beliefs about thenature of the divine or supernatural. This way of thinking about religion is aproduct of 19th century taxonomies, a mode that still has a lot of popular pulltoday but that is generally discredited in scholarship. More troublingly, heseems to think that it makes sense to speak about what “we Americans” believe,relying upon an uncritical assessment of vaguely worded polls. The UnitedStates is and always has been composed of an incredible diversity of beliefs,making such generalizations about allegedly epochal shifts extremely difficultto make with any accuracy. More often than not, these kind of generalizationsreflect the preoccupations of the one making them, rather than anything aboutthe actual state of affairs. 

David Patincommented December 12  Bloomington,IN  To the list of religious trends in the United States inDouthat’s first paragraph I would have added a political party that teams upwith a religious denomination to force the tenets of that faith on everyoneelse. Yet it isn’t just forcing the tenets of their faith on everyone else,it’s also declaring that anyone who doesn’t agree with their dogma is somehowless American than they are. And from some of the more extreme members of thisRepublican/Religious Party, those who don’t believe just like them are bringingabout the decline of the United States. That this forcing of faith on othersmight possibly be contributing to the secularization of the United Statessomehow Ross Douthat can’t imagine. 

esp commentedDecember 12  ILL  Confusing. Does one have to choose between "religion"or paganism? Can't one just "be". Be spiritual, yet not have a tag,like "religious" or pagan? Can't people exist spiritually withoutreading "self-help" books, or reading a religious text like the Bibleor worshiping nature. Or perhaps people could find some things helpful in"self-help" books, a religious text, and/or a walk in nature. Wisdomcan be found in all of these without having to be "religious" or"pagan"? Do we need to worship something? 

Ellen commentedDecember 12  Williamburg  One of the benefits of paganism is that most forms of it arenature and earth centered in belief. In a time of climate change provoked byneglect and abuse of our shared environment, we could use more religion thatoffers respect for Mother Earth and the natural processes that have allowedliving forms to largely thrive until our time. 

candideinnccommented December 12  spring hope,n.c.  I chuckled at the characterization of the burgeoning secularistsin America as being the gullible victims of "self-help gurus andspiritual-political entrepreneurs." Oh my goodness, no, Mr. Douthat! We donot need shamans and priests to encourage us to be skeptics. We are actuallycapable of rational thought, all under our own power. We are not littlechildren who are indoctrinated with the superstition that if we are good littleboys and girls, we will go up in the sky back in the arms of Mommy and Daddy,all under the benevolent supervision of the great, long bearded patriarch skydaddy. We are fully capable of distinguishing between fables and reality underour own power.

PJ commentedDecember 12  Salt LakeCity  Thank you Mr. Douthat for another challenging and interestingread. I too think about the decline of Christianity in the United States, buthave not come across a lot of anecdotal evidence suggesting the rise ofpaganism. No doubt you are better versed in theological studies than I am, butI would bet I interact with far more individuals than you do as I work as an ERclinical social worker. I rarely meet individuals who claim to be Pagan, thoughI have met 1 or 2 Wiccans over the course of many years. I meet manyindividuals who express spirituality and also disdain for organized religion ofany sort. The fact that they search for God in nature, the universe, and notinside a church, does not mean they are Pagan - which would be traditionallydefined as believing in many Gods. I rarely meet individuals who believe inmany Gods... The more likely hypothesis, I believe, is that people are beingpushed out of Protestant, Mormon, Catholic, and other Christian churchesbecause those religions continue to line up more with the political right,their values and prejudices, than the values and teachings of Jesus Christ. Ilong for the fellowship of religion, the ceremonies and rituals, but I will notpay tithes to any church that excludes people because of their identity, and isloyal to the political right. A kind man once told me: "if there were atrue church of Christ in our midst, there wouldn't be people dying in ourstreets from the cold". There are...

reaylwardcommented December 12  st simonsisland, ga  Douthat misidentifies what's happening to religious, inparticular Christian, institutions: it isn't a rise in secularization butsectarianism, the sectarianism practiced by the growing movement of independentevangelical churches. One is either a member and believer, or one isn't reallya Christian. These churches are usually led by a highly charismatic minister, acultish figure who determines the beliefs and practices to be followed and whohas unquestioned authority, both as the result of his or her charisma and theabsence of any hierarchy above him or her to which to answer. The onlyauthority above the minister is God, and the minister is the mediator betweenthe minister and his followers. These are by far the fastest growing Christianchurches, and their increasing numbers come at the expense of mainlineprotestant churches (Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.). It's not a big leap fromsuch cultish churches to a political cult, which helps explain Trump'soverwhelming popularity and support among the members. 

Didier commentedDecember 12  Charleston,WV  Perform this experiment. Over the next few months, visit severalmainline Protestant churches where you live. Don't worry; they will welcomeyou. But, what you will generally see are older congregations, empty pews, andlarge structures in need of repair. The membership of mainline Protestantchurches and particularly regular church attendance is cratering. I read anarticle recently that said, demographically, there are only about 23 Eastersleft for mainline Protestant churches. But, as I've sat in many of thosechurches for the last few years and looked around, and heard the few leftdecrying their decline, something has occurred to me. What if this isn't whatGod wants? What if hierarchical organizations and large buildings were amistake? Something that satisfied human aspirations, but not spiritual ones.There will always be those, like me, whose lives are, in part, a search for thedivine, but it is time to look and listen and reevaluate what it means to be asearcher. I will still go to church because it is there I find something --even if it is one I have never attended before -- that I cannot personally findelsewhere. But, I do not begrudge those who choose a different path. Icelebrate the journey, the search for the divine.

Norwestercommented December 12  Seattle  Douthat suggests that Judeo-Christian religions offer"help" where paganism does not, in a "universe that offerssuffering and misery in abundance." Christianity may offer opium tosufferers, but it does nothing to allay suffering and misery in any permanentway. No religion does. As Harris says, only when we recognize that there is nosupernatural solution and we humans are accountable for solving our ownproblems will we actually band together and solve them. In the mean time, we'llthrow bones at the poor, fight over magic books, fail in stewardship of ourplanet and waste time, money and resources on superstition, incense and prayer,none of which have any real benefit whatsoever.

Paul commentedDecember 12  Richmond VA  Call me a pagan, but the idea of a divine that pervades theuniverse strikes me as much more meaningful and profound than the notion thatthis is all the result of the snap some celestial magician’s fingers. If wedon’t seek the divine within us and all things, we’ll never find the divinewithout. Relying on an external divinity, though, leads inevitably to thewidespread practice of what Niebuhr called “bad religion” — religion thatreserves the ultimate sanction for itself. That road starts with the Crusadesand leads remorselessly to 9/11.


Jim Wiegel  

“That which consumes me is not man, nor the earth, nor the heavens, but the flame which consumes man, earth, and sky."  Nikos Kazantzakis

401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353
623-363-3277

jfwiegel at yahoo.com

www.partnersinparticipation.com


  
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