I have a reluctance regarding tossing things out, even when it's plainly obvious, as is the case with both Wicca and Feri, that a "tradition" is a recent invention. It's a hard thing to explain, why I feel this way, but it has something to do with the desire for an integral whole. If the inclusion of any one thing is arbitrary, if it may be discarded because I don't happen to like it, then everything seems, to me, equally disposable.
no advice, no sermons. merely, your words make me recall exactly why i identify myself (on the good days) as an atheist and an existentialist (of the sartrean tradition). raised methodist and a practicing wiccan for 2-ish years, i finally had to admit to myself that if i couldn't believe something 100%, then i couldn't believe it at all. much of my personal frustration with organised religion comes from the "pick and choose" mentality and my own conviction that one's beliefs should have a bit of a "follow-through" element (something i also like to call the "pork chops as pets" argument, though that applies only to ethics in general, not spirituality in particular). as in, if you adhere to one belief in one situation (i.e., pets/animals are people, too) then that belief should have continuity to other matters of life (ergo, i shouldn't eat pork chops). a better example was painted on the back of a canvas a roommate of mine once had: "real pro-lifers don't eat meat". to live otherwise would, in the words of sartre, be an act of bad faith.
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more on act 3
Date: 2006-07-14 01:01 am (UTC)I have a reluctance regarding tossing things out, even when it's plainly obvious, as is the case with both Wicca and Feri, that a "tradition" is a recent invention. It's a hard thing to explain, why I feel this way, but it has something to do with the desire for an integral whole. If the inclusion of any one thing is arbitrary, if it may be discarded because I don't happen to like it, then everything seems, to me, equally disposable.
no advice, no sermons. merely, your words make me recall exactly why i identify myself (on the good days) as an atheist and an existentialist (of the sartrean tradition). raised methodist and a practicing wiccan for 2-ish years, i finally had to admit to myself that if i couldn't believe something 100%, then i couldn't believe it at all. much of my personal frustration with organised religion comes from the "pick and choose" mentality and my own conviction that one's beliefs should have a bit of a "follow-through" element (something i also like to call the "pork chops as pets" argument, though that applies only to ethics in general, not spirituality in particular). as in, if you adhere to one belief in one situation (i.e., pets/animals are people, too) then that belief should have continuity to other matters of life (ergo, i shouldn't eat pork chops). a better example was painted on the back of a canvas a roommate of mine once had: "real pro-lifers don't eat meat".
to live otherwise would, in the words of sartre, be an act of bad faith.
so, um, yes. vee beeleev in NOTHING, Lebowski....