“one cannot hold high ideals that inspire one to better oneself without failing them sometimes.”
Brilliantly put.
“i don't believe that most christians in this country are the xmas/easter variety. in fact, i think those are the minority”
I should have worded that better. For the above reasons, I disagree, but maybe a better point to be made would be “what defines a christian”? (I look forward to you having fun with this one. I’m actually excited about the possibility of a nice long essay. What a masochist I am. *grins*)
“the truth is i have never in my life met someone who succeeds in this all the time”
I agree wholeheartedly. I think the source of the disagreement here is semantics. As pagans, we believe that we’re part of the universe and that the universe, for all it’s flaws, has a purpose and is balanced, interconnected, and perfect. Yet obviously, we as entities wouldn’t be striving to improve ourselves if we were already flawless. There’s always something to learn from any given experience, and I think more people would do well to gain understanding and learn to interact with that paradigm. However, it would be foolish on my part to even suggest that most pagans understood that concept. But at it’s heart, paganism is rooted in the belief that we’re all a small portion of what contributes to the inherent perfection and balance in the world, so to verbally or spiritually flog ourselves with the fact that we’re still imperfect entities is counter-productive. (I’ll have to see if I can find the book I was reading that touched on this and Catholicism during the time of Martin Luther (and hope I can find the relevant passages). Popular german author and theologian. Very astute fellow. Dead now, IIRC. You might possibly be able to determine who I’m thinking of, so please, toss out names. It’s on the tip of my tongue but I’m not getting it) Pagans SHOULD be holding themselves to the same improvement standard that christians are, (we’re not done cooking yet. Sticking a toothpick in us gets goop) the only difference being that generally, christians believe that their time-window constitutes one life and they’ll be rewarded for how hard they try/what they exemplify with “crowns” and pagans generally believe they’ll keep at it via re-incarnation until they learn what they’re supposed to and enjoy an eternity of peace.
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5)
Date: 2006-04-03 02:20 pm (UTC)Brilliantly put.
“i don't believe that most christians in this country are the xmas/easter variety. in fact, i think those are the minority”
I should have worded that better. For the above reasons, I disagree, but maybe a better point to be made would be “what defines a christian”? (I look forward to you having fun with this one. I’m actually excited about the possibility of a nice long essay. What a masochist I am. *grins*)
“the truth is i have never in my life met someone who succeeds in this all the time”
I agree wholeheartedly. I think the source of the disagreement here is semantics. As pagans, we believe that we’re part of the universe and that the universe, for all it’s flaws, has a purpose and is balanced, interconnected, and perfect. Yet obviously, we as entities wouldn’t be striving to improve ourselves if we were already flawless. There’s always something to learn from any given experience, and I think more people would do well to gain understanding and learn to interact with that paradigm. However, it would be foolish on my part to even suggest that most pagans understood that concept. But at it’s heart, paganism is rooted in the belief that we’re all a small portion of what contributes to the inherent perfection and balance in the world, so to verbally or spiritually flog ourselves with the fact that we’re still imperfect entities is counter-productive. (I’ll have to see if I can find the book I was reading that touched on this and Catholicism during the time of Martin Luther (and hope I can find the relevant passages). Popular german author and theologian. Very astute fellow. Dead now, IIRC. You might possibly be able to determine who I’m thinking of, so please, toss out names. It’s on the tip of my tongue but I’m not getting it) Pagans SHOULD be holding themselves to the same improvement standard that christians are, (we’re not done cooking yet. Sticking a toothpick in us gets goop) the only difference being that generally, christians believe that their time-window constitutes one life and they’ll be rewarded for how hard they try/what they exemplify with “crowns” and pagans generally believe they’ll keep at it via re-incarnation until they learn what they’re supposed to and enjoy an eternity of peace.