Religion without faith

[Lutiferre]

All of this is very important in one's reconstruction of Heathenry. Only when one kills the dragon called “thou shalt” of the modern multi-cultural Christian crock of crap, or in other words does away with the set of sentiments that hold said society together, does one have the ability to move out of their own nature. And, with that, and only then, comes the potential to re-create the world-view of one's ancestors.

As if "thou shalt", or the subordination to something higher and more supreme than yourself, is something uniquely Christian or Abrahamic. Far from it. As I pointed out, the Greek "kyrie eleison" (LORD HAVE MERCY) far predates Christianity and was used by many pagans to address their Lord. The same applies both to the gods and to humans of a higher position in pagan society. If you want to reconstruct heathenry, KYRIE ELEISON and THOU SHALT will be part of it.

But the point of the "thou shalt" of the Mosaic Law was never that we cannot simply disregard that command. After all, we were given free will, and we all have our right to death and our right to hell. The free will given to us by the Abrahamic God is far more anarchic than even what a pagan fatalist could dream of.

The point with it was that the supreme being is the highest thing of all, and therefore mandates the highest worship and devotion, unlike being obedient to the ideas of other men, like your obedience to Nietzsche, some German weakling and evolutionary dead-end who never achieved anything in his life except the softness of his pathetic little brain.

[arcticwolf]

Religion without faith?

There already is one, it's called Buddhism. It's over 2500 years old.

[kabeiros]

The point with it was that the supreme being is the highest thing of all, and therefore mandates the highest worship and devotion, unlike being obedient to the ideas of other men, like your obedience to Nietzsche, some German weakling and evolutionary dead-end who never achieved anything in his life except the softness of his pathetic little brain.

You are being obedient to the ideas of other men, too. Do you think that the Supreme Being wrote the Bible? Pathetic...

[Kale]

In my experience those who are genuinely pagan have all realized that any attempt at explaining their beliefs to others is completely pointless, it is not possible, it is a journey one takes by themselves. Granted I havn't met a whole lot of people claiming to be pagan that aren't obviously just trying to make a quick buck off palm readings.

[sql]

They just practice cultural traditions just for fun

[Neon Knight]

Neo-paganism is inspired by ancient paganism. It tries to capture the essence of it and combine that with metaphysical ideas, especially neo-platonism. I would agree that atheists doing religious rituals makes little sense.

[Gooding]

Neo-paganism is inspired by ancient paganism. It tries to capture the essence of it and combine that with metaphysical ideas, especially neo-platonism. I would agree that atheists doing religious rituals makes little sense.

Do you think maybe the rituals themselves might provide these guys with a sense of meaning?

[Neon Knight]

Do you think maybe the rituals themselves might provide these guys with a sense of meaning?

Good point. Yes, just as everyday rituals in normal life provide meaning to people on a psychological level. Occultists would say that performing rituals itself brings about spiritual transformation.

[Gooding]

Good point. Yes, just as everyday rituals in normal life provide meaning to people on a psychological level. Occultists would say that performing rituals itself brings about spiritual transformation.

Always provided that there's a spirit to transform, but that's heading into some pretty murky and unprovable stuff, so I'll leave that one alone. It provides their lives with a sense of structure and continuity with what they believe to be the values of their ancient ancestors.