"You can't be Pagan" list.

[Ophidia]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

Or, if you have children...

Especially boy-children, lol.

[thalassa]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

Sometimes it ends up being a baby, lol.

Which brings me to another list addition:

You can't be Pagan if you're child-free.

Or, if you have children...

[Ophidia]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

rapid and unhampered cell division isn't always cancer.

Sometimes it ends up being a baby, lol.

Which brings me to another list addition:

You can't be Pagan if you're child-free.

[Nightingale]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

whoa, it's like someone else is trying to tell me who I am.... such a sadly familiar feeling. and yeah, that list contradicts itself waaay too often

one of my personal favorites is a quote from my mom: "pagans don't go caroling." a few Christmases ago when I told her I've always wanted to go caroling because it seems like it would be fun. and who says I was gonna sing Christian carols? I just wanted to sing.

[PrinceKhanakus_the111th]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

Seems like impossible standards certain people expect Pagans to live by. Ah, the world of useless stereotypes... Seems to me like the Vikings, Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians,
Meso-Americans, etc. sure didn't play by their rules... Eating meat was
fine with pretty much all of them, they weren't told they had to
live in trees, and they certainly wouldn't ignore their swords and shields in the face of an attacking enemy... Guess they'd make the "They weren't pagan, they were heathen." excuse, like a certain friend of mine did.

[thalassa]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

This probably belongs in another thread...but I'm going to address it here, since its sort of the point of this thread.

That idea never made sense to me. You're following one of any number of religions which involve the worship and belief in literal Deities as a major part of its theology and yet you claim not to believe? It makes about as much sense to me as being an adherent of a Dharmic religion and not believing in karma. That's my two cents.

Belief in literal deities is a part of nearly every relgion's theology...and yet, there have been atheists participating in nearly every religion, probably from the dawn of time. Dieties aren't necessairly the point of religion, particularly if you look at it from a sociological or evolutinary context. Historically speaking, at least in ancient Greece, alternate beliefs in deities abounded, at least (that we know of) among the educated and elite...including the belief that the gods did not exist. Just because something doesn't make sense to you, doesn't mean it doesn't make sense to some people.

Take one look at the Pagan Tumblr community, and they will say that Atheist Pagans are totally cool, Pagan is an "Umbrella Term" and not a religion... It bothers me a lot.

Pagan *is* an umbrella term, and not a unified relgion. Christian is an umbrella term, and not a unified religion. Its called a polythetic definition--where there are many many carachteristics shared, but not universally, and not in whole between many varied individual items. For example...a game. Explain to me how monopoly, hide and seek, solitaire, and terraria are the same thing? Define a species--biologists have at least 36 different definitions for what a "species" is (most folks only learn one or two of them in school) because there are so many exceptions. Define cancer...different cancers have different carachertistics, and the one main thing they have in common, isn't exactly exclusive to cancer--rapid and unhampered cell division isn't always cancer.

The idea that Paganism is an umbrella term is absolutely true and (as a truth) it shouldn't bother you at all--what's to be bothered about an umbrella term for grouping a certain subset of religious traditions and philosophies? Christianity is an umbrella term for 38,000 denominations and countless more individual beliefs...they have nothing in common other than its adherents do their religion with Jesus. ...and that the Pagan umbrella is big enough to include atheists that choose to elevate or even venerate the natural world and its cycles or look to ancient pantheons and mythologies as symbols and imagery that fulfil their (probably metaphorical) spirit is something to be inspiring, not something to be rejected. Atheist Pagans are totally cool...and most of the ones I've know put far more thought and care into their beliefs and practices than some of the theist Pagans I've known.

[ThorsSon]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

Probably because there are actually a large group of atheist/naturalist/humanist Pagans out there.

...and many of the hard polytheist types have decided that they are no longer associating with the label "Pagan" as a result of them, the pantheists, and the soft polytheists, and the Wiccans.

There are a large number of pagans that contradict ALL of the things enumerated in the list.

[WinterTraditions]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

That idea never made sense to me. You're following one of any number of religions which involve the worship and belief in literal Deities as a major part of its theology and yet you claim not to believe? It makes about as much sense to me as being an adherent of a Dharmic religion and not believing in karma. That's my two cents.

Take one look at the Pagan Tumblr community, and they will say that Atheist Pagans are totally cool, Pagan is an "Umbrella Term" and not a religion... It bothers me a lot.

[Chessa]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

The country music one I sort of get. If there's two things I get from my (involuntary) country jam sessions, it's very Christian, and very anti-different-people. And as my sister pointed out, she likes country music because the third verse is always about Jesus.

[HavaSpell]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

Wow... That's absurd. (lol)
From my musical preferences, clothes, and general 'profile',
no one ever suspects that I'm anywhere near Pagan.
Oh, there's so much the heart should want to feel,
simply because the eyes could never discern such things. :P

[Dahll Haus]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

The best one I ever heard was' You can't be Pagan, you're too down to earth. '

[Riothamus12]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

Interestingly... there were more in that list that included me as a pagan than ones that excluded me...

Funny that "You aren't a pagan if you don't believe in god(s)" didn't make the list...

That idea never made sense to me. You're following one of any number of religions which involve the worship and belief in literal Deities as a major part of its theology and yet you claim not to believe? It makes about as much sense to me as being an adherent of a Dharmic religion and not believing in karma. That's my two cents.

[ThePaganMafia]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

I hear if you wear clothes in the woods you can't be Pagan.

Shaving is also frowned upon.

[thalassa]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

Funny that "You aren't a pagan if you don't believe in god(s)" didn't make the list...

Probably because there are actually a large group of atheist/naturalist/humanist Pagans out there.

...and many of the hard polytheist types have decided that they are no longer associating with the label "Pagan" as a result of them, the pantheists, and the soft polytheists, and the Wiccans.

[Ektor]

Re: "You can't be Pagan" list.

Oh, nevermind, I understood something else entirely. Sorry.