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As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

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    As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

    What (if any) personal and/or religious significance does evolution hold for you as a Pagan?


    (FYI, I'm working on a blog post, and your answers are part of my research/inspiration)
    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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    #2
    Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

    Holy Santa Maria, Thalassa, yer onna' role, wadda deep shiznitz these days...


    Evolution is the gravy on the smashed potatoes of life...

    Or, in other words, what is, is... but there's other stuff, too.
    Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

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      #3
      Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

      I'm not a pagan. Buuuut. I do not understand how anyone can not believe in evolution when we are actively IN evolution as we speak. What's with that?
      Satan is my spirit animal

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        #4
        Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

        A right-wing-fringe person once told me that every person/animal is born with all its recessive genes, etc., so that when some change appears, it was always in there, and it unfolds according to God's plan and timeline. I guess that's creationism?

        OK then. For me personally, evolution serves to further solidify the interconnectness of everything.
        sigpic
        Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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          #5
          Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

          It's something that happened and still is happening. Doesn't mean much more than that to me.

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            #6
            Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

            A lot, actually! It dovetails nicely with my understanding of Kemetic teachings. In the Heliopolitan creation story, Atum-Ra cries tears of joy after His two children, Shu and Tefnut, who had been lost in the ocean, are returned to Him. The tears fall to the ground and become people. This is a pun on the Egyptian words for tears and people, but it also expresses for me an idea of humanity's role in the universe. We weren't purposefully created; we're an accidental byproduct of creation. We just kind of happened. Yet here we are, and even if our existence wasn't intended, it's a mark of divine love.

            I feel this is completely in line with scientific teachings about evolution. Humans evolved from apes through random chance. We're not specially designed creatures of God. Yet the fact that we evolved from apes, which evolved from other things, on this beautiful planet around this star, out of all of the stars in the universe, is a testament to the vibrancy and beauty of creation.

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              #7
              Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

              I kind of work science into my path in this complicated little way. I think there are deities out there that had a hand in shaping life and did so by evolution. I think they created everything and sparked the Big Bang and let the rest of creation do what it does best. They may have helped along the way a bit, but it's all a weird mashup. I'm just a science geek and a pagan trying to put the two things I love and believe in together.
              A Happy Little Wiccan:^^:

              Army of Darkness: Guardians of the Chat

              Because who needs a life when you have a chatroom.

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                #8
                Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

                Personally, my view is that science and religion are inseparable from each other, as weird as that may sound. ^v^;

                To me, scientific and philosophical, and by extension theological, studies ultimately study the same intrinsic existence, as the spiritual and physical natures of all things within the universe are just simply two sides of the same coin. Science deals with issues and things within the world which can be directly observed by human beings in our current state of developed senses, while philosophy and theology deal with matters regarding what cannot be directly observed.

                In this way, both have a distinctly separate side, with only a little bridge in which they overlap. Ultimately, while both study the same thing, they address different aspects of that thing which the other cannot directly answer. In regards to the question of the relations between science and theology, and in this way evolutionary theory, ultimately I believe that scientific observation offers a similar observation into the spiritual nature of the universe, and therefore science and theology do not directly oppose one another. If anything they compliment each other in achieving better and clearer and better understandings of the physical and spiritual nature of the universe. ^,^

                Ultimately I don't really hold any particular importance to evolution, but I don't have any particularly favourable view of creationism either. To me, while it is important to understand the past, it is not necessarily crucial to understand the origins of human beings, or the universe for that matter. In addition, I personally have issues with all manners of explanations as the origin of the universe's existence. :3
                Last edited by LunarHarvest; 03 Apr 2015, 21:41. Reason: :3 ~Kitty faces~ <3

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                  #9
                  Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

                  If you believe that magic is the art if creating change in conformity with will, and you believe, as I do, that nature is sacred and a physical manifestation of the gods, then the science of change within that sacredness, is surely the greatest magic of all? So for me, evolution is highly significant.

                  That said, I don't just feel in awe of genetic evolution, but also the evolution of technology (mankind creating change in conformity with will, on a grand scale), or the evolution of language (for better or worse, selfie, retweet and trout-pout are part of English now). Even on a very personal level, I'm evolving. Pagan Forum taught me interpersonal skills, that I lacked when I joined. These days, I can not only read, but actually hand-write 100% of my study notes in Japanese, when not 2 years ago, I only recognised around 300 characters and could only write the phonetic characters by hand (hiragana and katakana). So I am constantly improving, changing, evolving.

                  My relationship with deity too, changes, adapts to the interests, learning and personal development that changes me. What began as a generic regurgitation of what every wicca 101 describes, developed into a unique blend of beliefs and outlooks, creating a deeply personal and ever changing relationship with deity.

                  Evolution seems to be at the heart of everything. It is so far the closest I've found to an answer to the question 'why am I here?', and it seems to cover both scientific, biological and spiritual angles.
                  夕方に急なにわか雨は「夕立」と呼ばれるなら、なぜ朝ににわか雨は「朝立ち」と呼ばれないの? ^^If a sudden rain shower in the evening is referred to as an 'evening stand', then why isn't a shower in the morning called 'morning stand'?

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                    #10
                    Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

                    A strange question. What significance has gravity to a pagan?

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                      #11
                      Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

                      Evolution is the continuation of the series of events that the Gods started. I don't personally believe that they still control anything on a grand scale, they just change little things here and there. Evolution is most certainly real and happening, no matter what Ken Ham has to say.

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                        #12
                        Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

                        In terms of a cosmology, I don't think deities had anything to do with creation, much less the development of life on this planet, or the existence of us as humans. At best, they (like us) are a byproduct of the Universe unfolding (expanding, whatevs)...but most days I'm pretty comfortable with the idea that they are a byproduct of humanity.
                        Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                        sigpic

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                          #13
                          Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

                          Originally posted by thalassa View Post
                          In terms of a cosmology, I don't think deities had anything to do with creation, much less the development of life on this planet, or the existence of us as humans. At best, they (like us) are a byproduct of the Universe unfolding (expanding, whatevs)...but most days I'm pretty comfortable with the idea that they are a byproduct of humanity.

                          This is more or less my stance too. The universe was created, life became possible, and where life could be born and thrive, it did. It doesn't clash with the evolutionary theory in the slightest, in my opinion anyway.

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                            #14
                            Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

                            Nothing at all, honestly.

                            I'm a scientist (archaeological science and anthropology), and a Pagan, equally. One is not more important than another; they're two totally separate sides of me, two facets of a complex shape.

                            Science answers a lot of questions for me, religion answers some more. There are some questions neither answer. I have other aspects of my life that deal with them.

                            I believe in evolution as anthropology and biology explains it. I believe in the fossil record. I believe in the Genome Project. I believe them intrinsically, and literally as they are explained in books and journals. I must admit I don't believe that fully in religion. I believe my senses and my feelings, and that differs from other people's feelings and senses. Because science is empirical, religion is subjective.
                            She is like a cat in the dark and then she is the darkness. ~~(=^._.^)

                            I got my war paint on and I'm off to go passive-aggressive all over these socially awkward man-witches. :XD:

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                              #15
                              Re: As a Pagan...what significance does evolution hold for you?

                              It doesn't. Evolution is a biological process. It's important to our species, of course, but means nothing to me spiritually.
                              Army of Darkness: Guardians of the Chat

                              Honorary Nord.

                              Habbalah Vlogs

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