Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

[westwoden]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

(Not to be confused with Kevin Bacon... that guy is just creepy! XD)

Kevin Bacon? - I liked him as a boy, and I thought most girls would think he was a hunk , (I know he has payed a few sinister roles) - how come you are not a fan, lol?

anyway, back to topic.

Paganism gets bashed due to the indoctrination of the Abrahamic mindset IMO

Quite ridiculous really when you consider that Christianity is based on Paganism, and Islam came some time after that.

[RiverSong]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

Kevin Bacon? - I liked him as a boy, and I thought most girls would think he was a hunk , (I know he has payed a few sinister roles) - how come you are not a fan, lol?

anyway, back to topic.

Paganism gets bashed due to the indoctrination of the Abrahamic mindset IMO

Quite ridiculous really when you consider that Christianity is based on Paganism, and Islam came some time after that.

LOL! Pay no attention to me, I'm a Keanu Reeves fan! I do love to play the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" game, but I find the guy creepy in general. I did love his role in the movie "Digging To China", he's a very good actor... yet, if I was alone with him in a room, I'd have to make a hole in a wall to escape. Something about him scares me, I don't know what. ;^_^

But yes, I have the same wonder about the fact that most of Christianity is based on Paganism, yet it gets bashed so much. It's almost like a child who gets the money from their parents to go to a good university, becomes a huge figure in academics, then thumbs their nose at said parents and ridicule them for not being on the same level as they've become. That person forgot how they got to where they are in the first place.

[westwoden]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

It's all part of the indoctrination process.

Anything that was different from the mainstream religions of the day was discredited in whatever way possible.

This still exits today.

[Highwoods]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

I think my biggest pet peeve comes from the people in my town. Twice now people have said i was not a "real wiccan" because i did not pray and thank the plants i eat (im a vegetarian). And recently one of my husband's coworkers said that basically that wicca supported anything (exactly what he said) "even someone who thought the world was s**T out by a magical baboon." Its not so much the ignorance here but the total lack of wanting to know what we actually do. They dont want there misconceptions straightened out.

[Faol]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

My biggest pet peeve is how people tend to throw around the word Karma in the completely wrong context. I don't like to borrow or use terms from other traditions if I don't know what they are. I don't like this new redefining of karma. I believe karma in the Hindu concept as the summation of our actions in life and how they effect and determine the next life; not an instant snap back of each action you do in this life. I think people use it in place of consequence of actions and events that lead from that.

[RiverSong]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

My biggest pet peeve is how people tend to throw around the word Karma in the completely wrong context. I don't like to borrow or use terms from other traditions if I don't know what they are. I don't like this new redefining of karma. I believe karma in the Hindu concept as the summation of our actions in life and how they effect and determine the next life; not an instant snap back of each action you do in this life. I think people use it in place of consequence of actions and events that lead from that.

True. I know that some people use it as a "boogeyman" that if you do bad things "Karma will get you!!!". Perhaps in the next life, sure. But what about for the good things too? I view Karma as a report card at the end of my life's cycle... if I was lazy and careless throughout my life, then I may get a bad mark at the end of the day. If I was mostly good, then a good mark. Or in between, a passing mark but nothing to cheer about in my next life. ^_^

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I think my biggest pet peeve comes from the people in my town. Twice now people have said i was not a "real wiccan" because i did not pray and thank the plants i eat (im a vegetarian). And recently one of my husband's coworkers said that basically that wicca supported anything (exactly what he said) "even someone who thought the world was s**T out by a magical baboon." Its not so much the ignorance here but the total lack of wanting to know what we actually do. They dont want there misconceptions straightened out.

Ignore the fools who wish to tell you that you're not in the "it crowd". Or at least, that's what I do anyways. ;-)
Stereotypes are everywhere unfortunately. You can choose to "enlighten" someone, but it's not always easy, especially when people WANT to wallow in their misconceptions. ^_^

[Threshold]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

Well, I'll call this a frustration rather than a peeve.

I'm a Pantheist, and most people don't know what that is, which is fine, and I'm happy to explain if they are interested. What I find frustrating is that many people are only willing to do the parallel chart thing. They want me to tell them what in my faith equates this or that in their faith...but it doesn't work that way. The entire structure of the faiths differ, then they behave as if I am stupid and don't get it because I can't or won't distil my faith into the only categories they are willing to consider.

I get the "ok, so you think everything is god right? Like my pillow, that's god."

um, no, not at all. Pantheism has no god.

Then who do you pray to?

I dont pray to anything, I just pray because it's what people do. I worship, because i cannot help but worship when the awe of it all hits me.

They get insulting when I say there is no sin, heaven or hell, and that the Universe neither requires or wants anything particular from me.

If I can't translate it into some bastardized version of their faith...then they declare it's not a faith at all. Because in their minds there must be a deity, with a personality, who requires certain behavior from humans, and who rewards and punishes.....

If they ask me theological questions like how did the world come to be, I answer honestly, "I don't know" and then they declare that's proof my faith is a fraud because THEIR faith has answers to all the important questions.

it would appear that in some people's minds ANY answer is better than admitting that you don't know the answer.

[RiverSong]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

If they ask me theological questions like how did the world come to be, I answer honestly, "I don't know" and then they declare that's proof my faith is a fraud because THEIR faith has answers to all the important questions.

it would appear that in some people's minds ANY answer is better than admitting that you don't know the answer.

Hmm... I think it's foolish for people to believe that their deity have all the answers in general... maybe they do, but what human can really claim to know what the answers are or that their deities disclosed it all to them? I know that some try to, but for the very hard and important questions in life, no one has any real answers to it. No one can really answer me why good people die, get hurt, suffer so much? Why some are born into poverty and others are born better off? Why do the bad guys sometimes win or babies die? Are there really aliens or are we the only life in the galaxy? And what or who is the Mothman?
I'm the first to admit that I don't know anything about anything. I know a little about some things, but even in those things, I only know the tip of a very huge iceberg that I haven't yet began to comprehend. So, I often utter, "I don't know", when I don't know or not enough of something. For a religion to claim that it knows the answers to all is foolish. For someone religious to claim that they know all of the answers to life is foolish. Shakespeare said it best with, "The fool doth thinks he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
I have to look into Pantheist, because a lot of it sounds a lot like what I believe in, except I do believe in deities. But it sounds a lot fascinating to me. ^_^

[nbdy]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

I don't call myself a pagan for a variety of reasons, but pagans pretty quickly decide that I am a pagan, so .... then why be irritated if I don't believe or act as "pagan" as they think I should? I never said I was a pagan, you did.

Anyway, this was posted at another site and I enjoyed it and saved it. Seems appropriate to this thread.

what pagans really do.jpg

[Jembru]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

I don't call myself a pagan for a variety of reasons, but pagans pretty quickly decide that I am a pagan, so .... then why be irritated if I don't believe or act as "pagan" as they think I should? I never said I was a pagan, you did.

Anyway, this was posted at another site and I enjoyed it and saved it. Seems appropriate to this thread.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1288[/ATTACH]

Now if I could just work out how to steal that and put it on facebook... love it!!

[Pallas]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

Native American wannabes. Like hippies, everybody assumes all those that take the Pagan-esque path are smoking pot or a peace pipe. But there are some out there and I find it unsettling. Now, I have no issues with people who connect to Native American beliefs, but to go as far as to claim to be Native American and even mark it on a census takes things too far. There have been cases of people even getting in trouble for that. I actually have a relative that's a Pagan and marks her race as Native American when she's not. 100% second generation Celt. I just don't get why you want to lie about something as unimportant as race.

People who want to be Pagan but have Christian or any other Abrahamic type guilt. By this, I mean people who do all things Pagan, but refuse to call it that and even go as far to insult those who do call themselves Pagan. if you're doing everything similar to them and have the same philosophy but you worship Jesus and they don't, do you really think they're going to hell and you're not?

And goths that claim to be Wiccan just because they're goth. I was a part of the goth style for a long time and saw so many "goths" say their religion was Wiccan and really had no idea what it was even about. They pretty much just said it to scare their parents and peers. AKA they thought it was all about what the Christian Channel portrayed it on TV as. :P

Sorry if any of those offend, those are just references to people who do it in an offensive way.^^;

[Threshold]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

I don't call myself a pagan for a variety of reasons, but pagans pretty quickly decide that I am a pagan, so .... then why be irritated if I don't believe or act as "pagan" as they think I should? I never said I was a pagan, you did.

Anyway, this was posted at another site and I enjoyed it and saved it. Seems appropriate to this thread.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1288[/ATTACH]

Amen! I never call myself a pagan because it only leads to MORE confusion. Unless people are part of the pagan spiritual community (as opposed to the thumb your nose at society and call it religion) they immediately form an image in their head that has nothing to do with what I believe.

I don't believe in The Goddess, I don't cast spells, I don't have group sex under the full moon in a cemetery.

People have some interesting ideas of "pagan" !

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Pallas,

very well said and honestly put.

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I have to look into Pantheist, because a lot of it sounds a lot like what I believe in, except I do believe in deities. But it sounds a lot fascinating to me. ^_^

Just a few thoughts. If you are a hard polytheist, meaning that you understand deities to be real sentient beings, then Pantheism might not suit you. If you are a soft polytheist, understanding deities as metaphors or concepts then Pantheism might be just your cup of tea.

BUT...if you go searching for pantheist groups online, many are hostile or at least dismissive of religion, deity, or even ritual.

There are pantheist groups that are very science oriented (not knocking this, I am a scientist) and they have given me serious dressing downs because I DO practice my Pantheism as a religion and find benefit in ritual etc.

I don't understand the Universe to be divine or supernatural, don't need to, it's awesome and as far as I am concerned, all powerful.

Religious, spiritual activities and behavior seem to be hard wired into the majority of humans by evolution itself. I see no reason to deny myself of the benefit I get in my life from excercising something that the Universe planted in me, out of a sense of spite, superiority or whatever it is that make many Pantheists so rabidly anti ritual/religion.

Yes, people have used religion as an excuse to be shitheads, but it's not spirituality or ritual that lead to that behavior...it is, dare I say more of that behavior evolution has apparently hard wired into us.

As a Pantheist, I reject the idea that humans are not, as fully as any other creature, plant or mineral, a part of the Universe and this planet. we are not a plague, or a mistake, or the one thing powerful enough to destroy the planet or bring something critical to an end. The universe brought us forth, planted the tendencies in us, and while we have consciousness, that apparently does not free us from the fact that we are mortal animals subject to instinct.

Anyway, I clearly went off on a tangent. My point was. There are many types of Pantheism. Just a head's up.

[RiverSong]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

Oh, thanks for the tip, Threshold. I respect science a lot and although I do believe in the supernatural, I'm always the first to search for a scientific reason behind something unknown. But, I wouldn't say I'm either a hard or soft polytheist... I'm simply in between both. I always seem to fall in between things: religions, philosophies, ideas, lifestyles, couch cushions, etc. Is there a "medium polytheist"? o_O
Although, I wasn't planning on joining any Pantheist groups, just do some research on the topic in my spare time. It sounds very interesting and whenever I come across another religious idea or path, I just want to learn as much as an outsider can about it. But thanks for the warning all the same! ^_^

I can understand why some Pantheist or anyone else may become anti ritual/religion, because too many people do become shitheads behind it. But my thinking is that it's not the religion or ritual at all. It's really that the religion or ritual had the misfortune of getting the attraction of said people. It's like, I refuse to blame the tree for smelling like piss, when it was a passing dog who did that, therefore I won't believe that all trees stink. However, I do understand how a person who cannot see the forests for it's trees, would come to that conclusion that all trees do in fact stink. I don't pity or look down on someone who can't see, but I do hope that someday they will get a free ride in a helicopter, to help put things in perspective a little. Or if it never happens, it never happens. It's no skin off my nose, either way. As long as I can enjoy the view! lol.

As you can see, I go off on tangents too, so no worries. ^_^

[TheOneInTheShadows]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

My biggest pet peeve when it comes to Paganism is...
How people think someone is a more "powerful" magick practionar.
I also don't like how people use the Wiccan rede as all Pagans ethics. Nothing against the rede just it just doesn't apply to all Pagans.
My final peeve is how people use the terms "witch", and "Wiccan" as the same thing.

[laoch briste]

Re: Biggest pet peeve about your faith?

As a born and bred Celt anyone who uses a D&D book as a guide to my religion. Druids do not shape-shift. If you seriously think you're turning into an animal - seek mental care or pass that shit