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 Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 7:24 pm
I was thinking about the spirit animal and Totem topic- and something occured to me. There's a chance someone might just not have one- I mean, there are billions of people on the planet and even if most of them have a favorite animal- I can't think of a religious reason to think everyone has a spirit animal that is there to help them personally.
And like someone else in the thread said about Totems, there's a chance that a family just doesn't have one.
It got me thinking- maybe the reason people are Atheists are because there aren't any gods who have called them to have a spiritual relationship with them.
What do you think?
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Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 7:47 pm
That's always been my theory. I mean, religion isn't everyone's bag, even people who consider themselves largely lax laity. Like Christians who are Christian, but never go to church and rarely pray, and don't really think about it much. The first time I met a Pagan like that I'll admit I was really surprised. But there are probably plenty, and they just don't really talk about it much because their interest in religion generally is minimal.
So I figure atheists simply aren't interested, which is fine, and no god is inclined enough to beat it into them. Maybe there are theists out there that no god was interested in to begin with, but they were determined and wanted some of that in their lives so they made overtures and wouldn't let up until someone took some interest in them.
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Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:17 pm
I like both of those ideas- and I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 7:31 pm
I never thought of it that way before, but it makes sense.
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Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:23 am
That's a thought. Especially since most of the atheists I know use the argument that they've, personally, never experienced anything that led them to believe in a higher power.
But what about people who turn away from a religion (in particular one that they are leaders in) to embrace atheism. I don't remember who they were but there was a story a while back about a couple who had been leaders in the neo-pagan community who decided to become atheists. They seemed to think it was the logical progression of things, that they had "outgrown" paganism and that atheism was the "mature, grown up" thing to believe. What about all those years they were promoting and supporting their former faith? Were they just pretending?
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 2:12 pm
This is an interesting topic. I like the theories in this thread and I'm curious if people still think the same or if there's other views on it. CalledTheRaven But what about people who turn away from a religion (in particular one that they are leaders in) to embrace atheism. I don't remember who they were but there was a story a while back about a couple who had been leaders in the neo-pagan community who decided to become atheists. They seemed to think it was the logical progression of things, that they had "outgrown" paganism and that atheism was the "mature, grown up" thing to believe. What about all those years they were promoting and supporting their former faith? Were they just pretending? Hope you don't mind that I'm commenting on this. I think that something behind that might be because when they were a part of that religion they really thought that they really were experiencing those deities and then when they turned to atheism it was them thinking "Maybe I was just fooling myself all along. They really weren't talking to me." Going along with the theories in this thread.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:07 pm
X-Yami-no-Ko-X This is an interesting topic. I like the theories in this thread and I'm curious if people still think the same or if there's other views on it. CalledTheRaven But what about people who turn away from a religion (in particular one that they are leaders in) to embrace atheism. I don't remember who they were but there was a story a while back about a couple who had been leaders in the neo-pagan community who decided to become atheists. They seemed to think it was the logical progression of things, that they had "outgrown" paganism and that atheism was the "mature, grown up" thing to believe. What about all those years they were promoting and supporting their former faith? Were they just pretending? Hope you don't mind that I'm commenting on this. I think that something behind that might be because when they were a part of that religion they really thought that they really were experiencing those deities and then when they turned to atheism it was them thinking "Maybe I was just fooling myself all along. They really weren't talking to me." Going along with the theories in this thread. Or depending on the path they might have just been atheistic pagans to begin with. You know, those folks who really believe it's all just us and that the Gods are symbols rather then individuals.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:20 pm
CalledTheRaven X-Yami-no-Ko-X This is an interesting topic. I like the theories in this thread and I'm curious if people still think the same or if there's other views on it. CalledTheRaven But what about people who turn away from a religion (in particular one that they are leaders in) to embrace atheism. I don't remember who they were but there was a story a while back about a couple who had been leaders in the neo-pagan community who decided to become atheists. They seemed to think it was the logical progression of things, that they had "outgrown" paganism and that atheism was the "mature, grown up" thing to believe. What about all those years they were promoting and supporting their former faith? Were they just pretending? Hope you don't mind that I'm commenting on this. I think that something behind that might be because when they were a part of that religion they really thought that they really were experiencing those deities and then when they turned to atheism it was them thinking "Maybe I was just fooling myself all along. They really weren't talking to me." Going along with the theories in this thread. Or depending on the path they might have just been atheistic pagans to begin with. You know, those folks who really believe it's all just us and that the Gods are symbols rather then individuals. Going with what Yami is saying, the gods might have stopped communicating with them for whatever reason or the rituals didn't work the same or etc which made them begin to question and doubt their previous experiences and eventually they turned to atheism.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:36 pm
Sanzolvr29 Going with what Yami is saying, the gods might have stopped communicating with them for whatever reason or the rituals didn't work the same or etc which made them begin to question and doubt their previous experiences and eventually they turned to atheism. You misunderstand me. I was suggesting that some of these people were never theists in the first place. I understand Yami's comments on the subject and they may indeed apply to some people that move from paganism to atheism but I'm suggesting that some of them may have always had a non-theistic or atheistic viewpoint and simply used the Gods and the various trappings of ritual as a focus or a means to an end and eventually decided to discard all the 'silly hocus pocus' as unnecessary. Of course, it's always possible to be a pagan atheist as well.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:50 pm
CalledTheRaven Sanzolvr29 Going with what Yami is saying, the gods might have stopped communicating with them for whatever reason or the rituals didn't work the same or etc which made them begin to question and doubt their previous experiences and eventually they turned to atheism. You misunderstand me. I was suggesting that some of these people were never theists in the first place. I understand Yami's comments on the subject and they may indeed apply to some people that move from paganism to atheism but I'm suggesting that some of them may have always had a non-theistic or atheistic viewpoint and simply used the Gods and the various trappings of ritual as a focus or a means to an end and eventually decided to discard all the 'silly hocus pocus' as unnecessary. Of course, it's always possible to be a pagan atheist as well. I see what you're saying, sorry about that, classes have me a little sleep deprived right now.
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Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2012 5:42 am
What annoyed me about the Deo's Shadow crew was that they related a few really powerful experiences on their show, and then later on just tossed them out the window. Like, these were not credulous people, and these experiences sounded really interesting, but everything they had done was just discarded, they had "evolved" past theism and were now Enlightened. And you just sort of - ironically - made the wtf atheist face. Just because they were suddenly such total tools. Because they just dismissed everything they had discussed and experienced and everything else. 
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