urban (03/29/83)
A few years back, I knew a student at college who belonged
to a Neo-Pagan church. As far as I could tell, this guy
was a genuinely devout pagan. It was his belief (and I
don't assume that he necessarily represented anyone else's
beliefs) that the Gods obtain their existence and power
from the belief of their worshippers, although they are
indeed separate beings (the NeoPagans seem to let the
cat out of the bag more than most religions in this
respect). He also felt that when he experienced feelings
of love, for example, that this involved the active
presence of Aphrodite (the name of the entity isn't
important, of course).
It's interesting to contrast this pagan with some of the
Christian Evangelicals I've known. For one thing, his
perception of the reality of his gods seemed just as strong
as the Christians' feeling of the presence of a Living
Christ. For another, he wasn't trying to convert me to his
religion any more than someone who expresses enthusiasm
for, say, some recreational activity is necessarily trying
to 'recruit' others to that activity. Finally, I've rarely
met a person of ANY religious (or anti-religious)
persuasion who demonstrated as much enjoyment of life, the
universe and (well, you know) as this person did. He
didn't convince me of the reality of his metaphysical
world-model, but he DID show me that no single religion has
a monopoly on @b(Truth).
Flameproofing my CRT,
Mike Urban
ucbvax!trw-unix!urban despite what the header says.