Re: Are we taken seriously?
Paganism's image has suffered from several events problems in its strife to become accepted as a serious religion. Excluding what makes us as an individual choose a religions, there are factors that make people take a religion seriously. For example the Jewish religion is characterized unity. Their religion is especially defined by a holy book and there is a strong unity between Jewish people (despite some diversity which happens to all religions) and a long historical tradition which gives it the test of time. Christianity and Islam both have a sacred text and also have a huge following with Islam catching up to Christianity in numbers. There is diversity among both Christian and Islam subgroups but they all have still have an identifiable Icon or reference so they can identify with. and have both a large following (two of the largest in the worlsd) and sacred texts to identifiy with. Buddism also has a large following and long history although it has a less clear unifying identity other than the Buddha image however there is enough uniformity of the beliefs for someone to recognize something as budism. Hinduism has a long history and sacred tests along with identifiable deities and a large following.
Now compare this to Paganism of today. Paganism resurfaced much later with controversy about whether there ever was a continuous pagan community which could hand down the rituals and beliefs. In view of our updated understanding Paganism has had to be recreated and in this process created a staggering number of different paths almost to the point of a pathway for each person. So it is a small group although growing with a short history with almost no unity other than it is Non-christian with the exceptions of blended christian and pagan beliefs and no sacred text or teachings which are in common. There is an image created by some that anything goes. This is wonderful for individuality but when compared to other religions gives the appearance of a non-serious religion with a limited expectancy to persist. There have been some efforts to create a more tangible identity with organizations like the pagan federation but the current movement at least remains very fractional and extremely resistant to define paganism in any way. Whether good or bad these things are made in harder to see paganism as a serious religion as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. This is the challenge that those identifying themselves as pagan have to accept. The irony is that paganism is as old as any religion and I believe has more in common than we allow it to have. If pagans can identify more with its past (why call yourself pagan if you want nothing from the past otherwise it becomes new new age or some other identification), and find some common things to identify with while maintaining its characteristic tolerance for diversity it may be taken more serious in the future. This is at least some ideas I have on the matter.
Paganism's image has suffered from several events problems in its strife to become accepted as a serious religion. Excluding what makes us as an individual choose a religions, there are factors that make people take a religion seriously. For example the Jewish religion is characterized unity. Their religion is especially defined by a holy book and there is a strong unity between Jewish people (despite some diversity which happens to all religions) and a long historical tradition which gives it the test of time. Christianity and Islam both have a sacred text and also have a huge following with Islam catching up to Christianity in numbers. There is diversity among both Christian and Islam subgroups but they all have still have an identifiable Icon or reference so they can identify with. and have both a large following (two of the largest in the worlsd) and sacred texts to identifiy with. Buddism also has a large following and long history although it has a less clear unifying identity other than the Buddha image however there is enough uniformity of the beliefs for someone to recognize something as budism. Hinduism has a long history and sacred tests along with identifiable deities and a large following.
Now compare this to Paganism of today. Paganism resurfaced much later with controversy about whether there ever was a continuous pagan community which could hand down the rituals and beliefs. In view of our updated understanding Paganism has had to be recreated and in this process created a staggering number of different paths almost to the point of a pathway for each person. So it is a small group although growing with a short history with almost no unity other than it is Non-christian with the exceptions of blended christian and pagan beliefs and no sacred text or teachings which are in common. There is an image created by some that anything goes. This is wonderful for individuality but when compared to other religions gives the appearance of a non-serious religion with a limited expectancy to persist. There have been some efforts to create a more tangible identity with organizations like the pagan federation but the current movement at least remains very fractional and extremely resistant to define paganism in any way. Whether good or bad these things are made in harder to see paganism as a serious religion as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. This is the challenge that those identifying themselves as pagan have to accept. The irony is that paganism is as old as any religion and I believe has more in common than we allow it to have. If pagans can identify more with its past (why call yourself pagan if you want nothing from the past otherwise it becomes new new age or some other identification), and find some common things to identify with while maintaining its characteristic tolerance for diversity it may be taken more serious in the future. This is at least some ideas I have on the matter.
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