Bad News - I'm Becoming Culturally "Spiritual"

Started by Shiranu, July 16, 2022, 04:51:22 PM

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Shiranu

Jokes aside, I have been spending a lot of time studying Germanic/Norse and Slavic mythology (much harder to do as an English speaker) and am looking at incorporating spiritual practices in my everyday life as a way of trying to preserve my heritage in the apocalypse - sort of in the same vein as Dawkins "atheistic cultural Christianity" to preserve our culture.

(Unrelated, but I just noticed something funny about Dawkins doing that - he is doing it to preserve "European culture" despite Christianity doing more to erase exactly that than any other religion, like a Native American being devoutly Baptist to preserve his American ancestry.)

I'm open minded about it; if it's true, then I hope the Vanir and the Aesir appreciate it - if it's not, I'm not gonna feel bad about learning history and trying to preserve it outside of some research paper that 50 people may ever read.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

SoldierofFortune

Don't worry, everybody is always in the process of ''becoming''. Just don't stop improving.

Just try to become the bestest version of yourself at your intellectual inner world.

And be careful about your intellectual world being intellectually satisfying.

Shiranu

#2
Stuff like this, the Æcerbot (a healing charm for infertile lands - essentially a "ritual" that was making a home-made fertilizer to try and restore the earth) or the "Nine Herbs Charm" (which mentions both Woden who sacrificed himself to discover the magic of runes and Jesus who sacrificed himself for humanity in equally positive light) show that these pagan rituals were not entirely without merit and give us a glimpse of what Christianity was like before it had the power to convert by force.

"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Blackleaf

Funny. I've been considering doing the same, but I'm mindful of the risk of groupthink. I don't want to escape one form of mind control just to be enslaved by another. That being said, Nordic heathens seem to be a chill and open-minded group. Just watch out for the white supremacist sub-culture that some have fallen into.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Shiranu

I've definitely noticed that sub-culture as well (hard not to), and I just do not understand it unless these people truly don't have the slightest clue about European paganism or the culture they are trying to mimic - they are just a bunch of hateful Christians trying to LARP as their ancestors, getting neither Christianity or the culture they are copying right.

I've heard it said, "white people have no culture.", and it's idiots like this them that have made it seem that way sometimes.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Blackleaf

#5
It's strange how ideas become engrained in religion, without any justification from history or religious texts. The Bible never condemns abortion, and in fact has a ritual for inducing abortion in women suspected of cheating. Yet the anti-abortion platform has become one of their most important issues.

A non-exhaustive list of things that were important to Jesus, but don't matter at all to the GQP: Give to the poor, care for those in prison, extreme pacifism, the rich getting no preferential treatment because they take advantage of the poor, praying in private and NEVER in public
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

the_antithesis

I never understood the value we place on culture. You put two people together, they develop a culture. Separate them, the culture dies. It's really easy to do both, actually.

Dark Lightning

Quote from: Blackleaf on July 23, 2022, 08:18:57 PMIt's strange how ideas become engrained in religion, without any justification from history or religious texts. The Bible never condemns abortion, and in fact has a ritual for inducing abortion in women suspected of cheating. Yet the anti-abortion platform has become one of their most important issues.

A non-exhaustive list of things that were important to Jesus, but don't matter all for the GQP: Give to the poor, care for those in prison, extreme pacifism, the rich getting no preferential treatment because they take advantage of the poor, praying in private and NEVER in public

If the putative Jesus showed up today, they'd chase his brown ass right out of the US. The religious right is neither.

Shiranu

Quote from: the_antithesis on July 23, 2022, 09:38:39 PMI never understood the value we place on culture. You put two people together, they develop a culture. Separate them, the culture dies. It's really easy to do both, actually.
I don't know, just as a being currently living... I quite like that we work together and create things like stories, movies, paintings, carvings, social-cohesion forming bonds, etc. .

The only humans that don't value culture are people like Putin, or children raised by animals. I think that shows pretty clearly the value of culture if you value a decent life, no?
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur