Can you be atheist and pagan

Which had led me to write my previous article because that is what happens next in these very conversations. Its something that happens to me all the time.

This is not something I chose lightly. Get newsletters and updates Close. Also, send me the Pagan Newsletter and special offers. Also, send me the Pagan Newsletter. Toggle navigation. Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world. Previous Post. Next Post. Browse Our Archives. Also, send me special offers. Voodoo Universe. Do you know the difference between a psychic and a medium?

As you might be able to conclude from the definition, pagan is an umbrella word that influences or encompasses many other types of spirituality. The word has existed in its modern sense for centuries, and its beliefs have existed for even longer. Today, the neopaganism spiritual movement centers on pre- Christian rituals and traditions, as well as a deep respect for nature.

Neopaganism can be traced back to the s, and versions known today were strongly shaped in the s in the United States, United Kingdom, and Scandinavia as a revival of nature and fertility worship. Followers have a diverse set of beliefs that focus on connection with the natural environment and treating people equally.

By definition, wicca is part of the broader category of neopaganism. Spirituality, nature, and fertility are at the heart of both neopaganism and wicca. Both of these terms have helped move the modern connotation of paganism away from the negative historical Christian connotation of pagans as people who worship false gods. Pagan once primarily referred to people who followed a polytheistic religion—meaning they observed more than one god.

The ancient Romans and Greeks were pagans , for example. The time for that sense of the word has long come and gone, and pagan is no longer primarily used as an insult. Women play a significant role in ceremonies and goddesses are of great importance.

Pagans believe that there is divinity in the living world and, through rituals, they can connect with the divine. The festivals are related to their devotion to nature; e. The following three items, taken together, provide a comprehensive overview of the basic beliefs.

Although principles vary from one pagan religion to another, most pagan religions follow the same general set of principles in some form. Responsibility of Beliefs. Everything is Sacred. For some pagans, all parts of our universe are considered divine and, as such, sacred and worthy of our deepest respect.

Freedom of Choosing Deity. Pagans have many different ideas about what encompasses Deity and how their Deity is represented. It is up to the individual, through study of their religion, meditation and, in some cases prayer, to determine what image of Deity is right for them. Scope of Consciousness. All life forms contain some level of consciousness, from the smallest insect to the giant redwood trees….

For the most part however, these very basic principles can be found in almost all forms of paganism. Deity is seen as immanent rather than transcendent.

Experience is preferred over doctrine. It is believed that there are and should be multiple paths to the Divine…. While there is no set of beliefs shared by all Pagans, most would agree that similarities far outweigh differences. There are a number of beliefs held by the vast majority of modern Pagans. These are often seen as archetypes or gateways to the unconscious. Thus a healthy skepticism is to be fostered, and ideas are not to be accepted without personal investigation of their validity.

Love for and Kinship with Nature. Recognition of the Divine, which transcends gender, acknowledging both the female and male aspect of Deity. Naturalism asserts that supernatural entities like God do not exist, and warns us that knowledge gained without appeal to the natural world and without impartial review by multiple observers is unreliable.

Of course there are strange or as yet unanswered questions about the world, but when we really know or understand the answers then these phenomena are always brought into the natural world or under the laws of nature ….

We also suggest that you go to the sources noted below for a more complete presentation of the key principles of humanism. The principles cover a wide array of humanist concerns. We have drawn from several statements.

From Humanist Manifesto I — In place of the old attitudes involved in worship and prayer, the humanist finds his religious emotions expressed in a heightened sense of personal life and in a cooperative effort to promote social well-being. At the present juncture of history, commitment to all humankind is the highest commitment of which we are capable. Thus engaged in the flow of life, we aspire to this vision with the informed conviction that humanity has the ability to progress toward its highest ideals.

The responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and ours alone. From the Amsterdam Declaration International Humanist and Ethical Union — Humanism is a lifestance aiming at the maximum possible fulfillment through the cultivation of ethical and creative living and offers an ethical and rational means of addressing the challenges of our times. Humanism can be a way of life for everyone everywhere.

In an essay on What Is Humanism? And even in critique it is tolerant, defending the rights of all people to choose other ways, to speak and to write freely, to live their lives according to their own lights. So the choice is yours. Are you a humanist?

The majority are, in fact, theists — and the majority of those are polytheists, believers in many gods. But there are some Pagan pantheists out there, too, along with some monotheists, some agnostics and yes, even some atheists.

While the size of the sample for these questions was significant at more than people, the sampling was not scientific.

Few people showed greater reverence for nature than the late Carl Sagan, an agnostic who made a career of exploring — and marveling at — the wonders of the universe. In fact, he was so astounded by the beauty and complexity of the universe itself, that he saw no need to go seeking gods or goddesses to explain it.

His philosophy was that no concept of a creator or overseer could possibly match the awe-inspiring grandeur of nature itself. This is the way the Pagan atheist views the world, and the universe at large. In fact, many Pagans view the universe as a sort of living organism — either metaphorically or in actual terms. The parallels are, indeed, fascinating. How could we even conceive of such a something in any case?

All of which raises the question of gods and goddesses. What, exactly, are they? Are they supernatural entities — beings outside or somehow above nature? This is certainly the Christian worldview — a view that places its deity outside of nature and, in doing so, casts nature itself in a subordinate role.

I know of very few Pagans who approve of exploiting nature for the sake of human greed and narcissism. Most, in my experience, view humans as part of nature, not separate from it — part of an intricate web of life, not somehow above or beyond it.

Gods and goddesses, likewise, are most often viewed as part of the fabric of nature, rather than somehow disconnected from it. On the contrary, they are connected in the most intimate fashion possible. Poseidon is the sea personified. Deities such as Osiris, Aphrodite and Freya exemplify the very principle of fertility. One difficulty many atheists have with these conceptions is practical. There were a couple of problems with this assumption.

Second, instead of placating the forces of nature, the assumption led us to actually destroy elements of nature itself. We sacrificed things that were never ours to sacrifice. We killed animals and burned them on altars. We even went so far as to kill humans. The Christian concept of hell falls into this category, as does the shunning of family members still practiced in some faiths. Those who practice a variety of other faiths still sacrifice animals in the hope of propitiating or manipulating the gods.

These are the kinds of practices that the Pagan atheist finds saddening, because they do unnecessary damage to nature itself — something humanity has done far too often. Indeed, the Judeo-Christian tradition, whose god was originally a storm deity in a polytheistic tradition, often justifies brutalizing nature on the grounds that this god gave human beings the right to do so.

It seems contradictory perhaps even sadomasochistic that a god of nature should have given humans the right to destroy his creation for their benefit. Or his. Or both. It is precisely because of a love for nature that a person can identify as a Pagan and an atheist with absolutely no contradiction whatsoever. The Pagan atheist views nature itself as the magnificent framework of which we all are a part — and has no need to put a human face on it. To do so is to look at it through a clouded lens, rather than taking it at its own marvelous face value.

Perhaps the biggest misconception is that Pagan atheists are just a bunch of bah-humbug types who revel in their own bitterness and adhere to a boring and rigid existence devoid of beauty and reverence.