Sorry today there will be so service. The problem is time and my mind is needed elsewhere at the moment. Once classes are done I will be back at it next week.
As an aside, while i was in the ministry i would often fantasize about what it would be like to just skip as service. Just do what everyone else did when they didn’t feel like going to church – stay home and not go. So happy skip day.
Just consider it an inclement weather day for yourselves.
As for inspiration, George Carlin for you today:
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
These days I am looking at being nothing but a human being – hopefully a decent one. As a deist I can acknowledge the possibility of a god, gods or divine force but because of ignorance I don’t really know what they or it is. I just don’t know and I cannot assume that they have done anything more than create the perimeters in which I live and nothing more. I have faced and will continue to face problems in this world, so who do I rely on to help me with those difficulties?
This is where I become a humanist and basically say it is time for the human race to grow up and realize that the only solution to human problems is humanity itself. That if I am going to look to solve my problems, I need to look to me to solve them and if I can join together with other humans to solve mutual problems that may be the only way to solve them. I need to have ‘faith’ in humanity to do this because in truth, as far as we know, our only salvation for our problems is our own abilities to over come them.
Faith:
I know people might watch the news and wonder how one can have faith in humanity. I do because in truth the news focuses on a small minority of people with either a problem or are the cause of a problem. The news always focuses on the small minority of bad things that happened while ignoring the normal good things that happen every day that are far more numerous. It is the classic case of focus on the negative but ignoring that the positive that far outweighs the negative. “Problem X has gone up two percentage points in the last year.” What they don’t tell you is this is only an increase from 2% to 4% and 96% of people don’t have that problem or are not engaged in that negative behavior. As Penn Gillette rightly observed there are two things about people which are true: 1) Things are usually getting better all the time and 2) People always believe they are getting worse.
I believe most of us humans are like myself. I am just trying to make my way in this world the best I can, make the best life for myself. I just doing the best I can with the cards I have been dealt and trying to get new cards if I can. I would never intentionally hurt someone and I mind my own business unless I see someone in trouble and then I try to help as best I can. I don’t do this for any other reason other than it’s the right thing to do. Because it is the human thing to do.
Religion:
This is a far cry from most religions which try to tell you that humanity is all sinful, or deficient or selfish. Religion as a general rule uses guilt and remorse for past mistakes to motivate people to action. It also creates this false sense of achievement that allows some of that religion to arrive at a higher spiritual plane and thus judge the rest of us a righteous or unrighteous. Thus they can motivate us to serve them as a way to ease their burden while adding to our own.
I am not very religious anymore. Mythology of all types is more of a hobby and area of knowledge of mine but in truth I approach the world trying to be spiritual but not religious. My motivation comes from my own humanity which I no longer consider sinful or deficient. There is good in me and probably more than most religious systems would acknowledge or want me to acknowledge.
Theology:
As a deist and humanist, my theology of humanity has changed quite considerably. I no longer see human beings as anything but what they are – human. Not sinners in the hands of an angry God, not morally deficient because they have desires that are basic to survival and living and not some drifting concept or phantom shadow. Just real genuine humanity.
This means I can hope a lot of things for my fellow humans. I can see them as fully capable of handling their own problems. I can also see that if I join with them I might be able to overcome greater problems. I don’t look at humanity as the problem, but the only real thing I can see and know that can solve those problems.
There is a respect for the individual human that follows from this as well. Not just a respect for the whole of humanity, but that each human being has this capacity to be more and better than what they are. Because of this I feel and have always felt that humans should be as free as possible to pursue their own interests to overcome their own problems as long as they do not bring harm to others. In the end I alone and they alone are responsible for their actions.
Spirituality:
As a humanist I know on thing for sure – I alone am morally responsible for what I do. No one else can have that responsibility. I also cannot be held morally responsible for anyone else’s choices. Nor should I be held accountable for them. If there is one axiom of religion that might be true, it’s the idea of being treated like I want to be treated. I want to be left alone to pursue what is best for me and as long as I don’t do that by harming or exploiting others, I should be allowed to do it. This is my basis for liberty and freedom for myself and all others. I am a libertarian in large part now becasue I am a humanist.
Conclusion:
It is in liberty and freedom where human beings are free to pursue solutions to their problems and associate with those they choose to associate with that such solutions will be found. No place else. This is something that religious people find it hard to grasp. They turn to a god, gods or whatever force they serve for the solutions and then wonder why problems still persist. This issue is turning to the one thing we know in the world that has the potential to actually solve the problems we face – ourselves.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
I am working on school work so it is helpful to review certain concepts. Most notably basics. Most people think economics is a dull subject but it probably is the one science that also deals rationally with the question of scarcity. That is what to do with resources as all resources have a limited availability? All resources are scarce, so how to distribute them is always the issue. Within this framework will be arguments and in economics arguments boil down to whether something is normative or positively stated.
A positive statement is factual dealing with the way things are and describes things factually. A normative statement is a statement of what should be and deals with recommendations for how things should be. In my old religious/theology classes positives statements are the issues of morals – the way things are and how people actually behave. Normative statements would be the issues of ethics – the way things ought to be.
When people ask me why I like economics so much it is because economics is a very human thing. Society and individuals do not live in a world of pure positive or normative reality. In truth things are constantly going back and forth between what is and what ought to be. To the wolves and ravens.
Needs (Geri):
It is a positive statement to say that human beings have needs. Things that must take place for people to survive. We need water, food, shelter from the elements and air. Without these things we would die. Most of these things are scarce, in truth all of them.
What is not always clear is how these needs should be met in the most effective and efficient manner. Economists will put out different models and will engage the subject with as much fact and evidence they can muster. However, some of this discussion in the area of needs dwells in the realm of the normative, because some economists might argue that this list of needs is too short. Education, Health Care, Defense, etc. all enter the picture here as the issues of well-being and security seem to be in that realm of tug of war between morals and ethics.
Wants (Freki):
People want things – that is probably a positive statement. The issue of how one goes about acquiring what one wants enters the realm of ethics and the normative very quickly. The whole discussion of rights, collectivism vs. individualism and many other discussions of which economics system is the best, enter the arena at this point. It could be said that the majority of the disagreements between economists involve wants vs. needs discussions.
Reason (Huginn):
One would think the moment we engage reason that the world of the normative drops out of the picture. It doesn’t though. Reason has to engage ideas of all kinds. In economics reason might spend a large part of the time engaging the laws of economics (there are at east thirty of them) but sometimes it is not clear because of the normative nature of the issue how those laws should be applied. This is the centrality of the issue of economics. I love this aspect of it.
Wisdom (Muninn):
Wisdom is learning to understand things and how to apply them. Economics, because of this normative/positive tug of war, has the added feature of trying to be applied to real life. Trying to come up with the best solution for the problems of needs and wants is the central core of economics and this practical aspect draws me to it like a moth to a flame. Sifting through all the normative and positive statements to find a true genuinely helpful philosophy of economics is a worthy goal and one I want to embrace. In addition economics has been around long enough that from Adam Smith onward we have a large number people to draw from as far as experiences and thought. It means the wisdom provided on these questions is extensive.
Conclusion:
If there is any lesson today it is for people to recognize that there are positive and normative statements in the world and to learn to distinguish between the two of them. This becomes the foundational skill of learning not only how to engage logical principles but to learn how to know when someone is stating a fact or an ethical opinion is something that every person should learn. For me economics stands as this great fusion between life and philosophy and learning how to navigate both.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
If someone were to ask me if I could still celebrate Thanksgiving as a non-Christian, I would probably respond – “You still think Thanksgiving is a Christian holiday? That’s cute.” The thing is that when you study holidays in general you see a couple of things. Nearly all cultures and religions have a celebration of thanksgiving to whatever powers are worshiped at the harvest time. All of them. The other thing you see is when a country or culture accepts Christianity, Christians basically repackage the pagan holidays and re-symbolize them for themselves. In short, Christians have stolen or blended with holidays from all different traditions since Christianity was founded as the early Jewish Christians still celebrated Jewish holidays. Mostly what you see today is Christians have stolen various holiday traditions from paganism and blended them with their own. It’s why some pagans get mad about the whole thing.
Personally, I am taking a different tack this Thanksgiving. I am a deist and I will probably whisper a prayer (something I rarely do anymore) of pure thanksgiving to whatever powers are really out there, if any. But to be honest there are thanks that could be given to many people for that celebration and for the prosperity I receive. So my list of thanks goes to people this year.
I thank my wife for being a forgiving soul who loves me despite all the things that have happened between us. I haven’t been a very good husband this year, but she deserves wife of the year honors. Thank you baby. I love you more than ever before.
I thank my Mother for being so generous to us in the past decades for housing us an sheltering us. She has put up with a lot and still loves us.
I thank my kids for being good kids. You have all followed your hearts and have learned to love with power. All of you have expressed your love for me this last year and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. Thank you.
I thank my grand kids for being kids. For showing how there can be pure joy in the world for the simple things of life. For showing me that no matter what the news says, I can see hope in your eyes.
I thank my fellow students at school and my professors. The learning environment over the years has been awesome. That is mostly due to you.
I thank my coworkers. You have given me comradeship that I do value. It’s nice to work with you, laugh with you and just share this working experience with you. You make the burdens of it lighter.
As I look at my feast, I thank the farmers, ranchers and all the people who make it possible. To the people who plant, grow, raise, harvest, process and transport all of it – Thank you.
For everyone who keeps the heat and lights on, provides the basics of life and the luxuries. Thank you.
I thank the watchers of the wall. While I think many of the so-called threats to the nation are the politicians made up are garbage done for political ploys, I know there are real threats out there that you guard against. Thank you.
To my friends, to the ones I have left anyway. Thanks for sticking with me. I haven’t made it easy this year I know. I appreciate the real friends who didn’t bolt at the first sign of trouble.
Yeah, I am going to thank people this year. Thank you all.
In Thanksgiving,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
We don’t pray here – we figure God, the gods and goddesses, or whatever powers that be either know already, don’t give a fuck, or are busy with more important matters than our petty stuff. We also kind of assume that they expect us to do stuff that we can do for ourselves, and that we will do them ourselves and not be lazy. We also believe in being good friends, so we don’t presume on our friendship with the powers that be by asking them all the time for stuff while giving them nothing in return.
We also don’t take an offering here. We figure the powers that be probably don’t need it. Let’s be honest, offerings are not giving to the divine powers, they are given to an organization to support it. Just being honest. God, the gods or whatever never see a dime, farthing or peso of that money; it all goes to the church, mosque or shrine.
Seems like every time I turn around here some great icon I love has died and this week its a man who probably inspired my imagination more than any other during his life. Mostly because he has been around from the beginning. Spider-Man was to be my favorite comic character for his human struggles, snappy sarcastic wit and he was just plain cool. But I also found myself reading Stan’s editorial comments in his comic books and discovered a man who was inspiring in his imagination and advice to writers and aspiring comic book artists. This session of the Pagan Pulpit salutes Marvel Comics’ heart and soul – Stan Lee (1922-2018) – RIP.
Opening Song: Spider Man Theme Song 1960s
A song from my childhood and one that celebrates probably the best comic character of all time. It may be a cheesy song from the 1960s but that was normal back then. In any case, my Saturday morning cartoons were dotted with comic book super heroes and Spidey was one of them. Stan’s ultimate genius was a character that was real as a person but super as a hero.
Poem:
This poem went viral when Stan wrote it. He released it about two years ago. It speaks for itself. Stan was a pretty standard poet. His words however were anything but normal or standard.
Meditation:
Song of Preparation: X-Men Opening Theme
More cartoon stuff but from my teen age to early twenties (yes, I read comics and watched super hero cartoons well into adulthood). The X-Men were favorites of mine with the underlying tone of them being a call against racism. Stan Lee had a way of letting his characters not only be real, but also they addressed tough issues and the X-Men and its mutants were one of those groups that addressed a hard social issue. Particularly what society does with those that are perceived to be monsters or outcasts.
Text:
“The only advice anyone can give is, if you want to be a writer. keep writing. And read all you can, read everything.”
Sermon:
Writing is one of my passions of course. People who talk about writing get my attention. In truth one of my early instructors was Stan Lee. Not just through reading his comics but he would have an editorial at the beginning of every comic I read specifically to that group or character. I loved every moment of reading those. I mean my friends would read comics but I think I was the only one in my group of friends reading the editorial notes and thinking about how the comics were produced. The one message that came through is that everything started with a great story.
This is still true. We have digitized just about everything, but the imagination that casts the original story is still in the writer. It wasn’t the super powers that caught my attention, it was the characters and the story they were in and Stan Lee recognized this. That’s why his characters and stories survived while many other comics died and disappeared. No matter how cool your graphics, if the story sucks or the people can’t relate to the characters, people will not read it.
You have to be real when you write. Stan had this thing for the real. His most famous quote about this is that when it came to comic books he felt they were like boobs. They might look great on a computer, but he would rather have them in his hand. I concur with this observation and I still feel the same way bout books and other things I read. I like to sit in a chair and read them and I feel they should sit in my hand as real objects that books, comic books or magazines. I also feel the same about boobs as well. Some things have more reality than others. The more senses you use the more real things seem.
The advice Stan gives to writers is two-fold – 1) Never stop writing. Keep doing it. 2) Read everything you can. Not unique perhaps but when you hear enough successful writers say this you begin to realize it is probably true. As I am now considering writing as a career path, the advice seems more applicable. It’s advice I will take to heart for the rest of my life.
If the X-Men took on racism, just about every issue along with that one, the Avengers addressed. One of my favorite groups because the cast of characters was constantly revolving and changing, It introduced me to a lot of characters and character development and as a writer I love that.
Stan Lee, you cannot know how many of us loved your work. You were more than a comic book artist or entertainer. You were a person who inspired many of us to believe that a better humanity was possible. That no matter how dark the evil might be, heroes would rise up from the human race and fight it. It was this notion that kept many of us from going off the deep end. Your work inspired my imagination and for that I will always be grateful.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
My loss of faith really started here. I can actually go back to a message I was preaching on sin and salvation through Christ and the fact this quote from Dan Barker from Losing Faith in Faith ( a book I still want to read) was rolling around in my head. I was trying to think of something that would make his assertion wrong. I got up preached the message and sat down. I can site this moment as the time my crisis of faith began. I realized he was right.
I realized there is no proof that sin rationally exists. I only believed that because that was what I was told by a preacher and read it in the Bible. Unless the Bible was truly inspired, then I had no natural or logical proof that there was this thing called sin, a sinful nature or my actions were righteous or sinful. God Himself had never come down and told me I was a sinner, that was men either in the form of preachers or the men who wrote the Bible. Over time, I began to realize that sin has the same problem as the inspiration of the Bible – the Bible asserts it but never proves it.
Going back to my pulpit moment, I sat there thinking and my faith started to unravel. I sat there thinking: “I make a living by telling people they are sinners so they will feel guilty, then they accept the ‘gospel’ and feel better. Out of gratitude they throw money in the basket and pay me. WTF.” It was a bad moment for me and one that led to my eventual downfall over two years later.
Faith:
If you are a believer you take the existence of sin as purely a matter of faith. Basically, if you believe that sin exists, you do it for the same reasons you believe the Bible is inspired. You have faith it is true – you hope and believe it is true, but you do not have a proof or a rational argument to say it is true. The Bible writers assume sin is real and a problem. They never prove it, and the believer is left to take that sin exists as a reality and that God has solved it. You believe all that without rational evidence. It is purely a matter of faith.
Religion:
I now think that sin is a man-made concept. It probably originally. like so many things might have had a good intention. To keep people from making bad decisions given the cultural context. I mean sex without birth control and modern medicine can lead to deadly diseases and unwanted pregnancies. So you tell people not to have sex except with people they are committed to and get married to so the child will be legitimate. The practical side of this is the lessened risk of STDs and unwanted pregnancies. It is a wise course of action.
When just showing the wisdom of this to others doesn’t work, you throw in the wrath of God to bring about a more forceful form of persuasion – tell them it’s a sin against God and He will bring down his wrath on the one who sins. This is where you make up the concept that sexual sin is an affront to God and he will send you to hell if you don’t repent of it and stop doing it. It is ultimately a fear tactic that uses guilt to prevent certain behaviors.
The dark side of this gets worse though as people genuinely think they’re taking the side of God when the punish sinners. The real problem with sin is that some people think they have risen above the concept of it. They feel qualified to judge others using their religious beliefs. It gets worse because the said concept can be held by people in power who wish to impose their views on people to create a ‘righteous society’. To force others to follow your moral code of some behaviors being sin and thus outlawed. The problem is the difficulty using reason to prove something is a sin. It’s not self-evident.
Theology:
I don’t believe in sin as a theological concept anymore. I think in large part it is a bad one because all it does is produce guilt and then in a guilt-ridden state people can be manipulated. I haven’t looked at this fully but I have a theory a large part of religious people have a poor self-concept and that is because they have a large amount of guilt associated with their ‘sins’. This leads them to think they are bad or even evil people and the cycle of self-destruction begins. You spend a lot of time putting on masks at that point to protect yourself from the social wrath of being a sinner while at the same time being wracked with guilt because you can’t seem to escape your sin. If it sounds like I have been there – yep. I would say a lot of my initial causes of depression came from this struggle.
My theology about mankind has certainly changed since I discarded man as a sinner. I don’t think of myself as a sinner but simply a human being. I am not all-powerful, all-knowing or all-present; so I am going to make mistakes and there is really nothing I can do about it. I have needs that are normal. Wants that are normal. I have my reason and wisdom to guide me. I am not perfect and I make mistakes and have errors in judgment, but that doesn’t mean I am a sinner, just human. To me, life is no longer about overcoming sin and removing it from my life. Rather, it is about discovering the virtue in me and causing it to grow. And there is a virtue in who I am as a human being if I look for it and develop it. It about growing into the best human being I can be.
Spirituality:
This is why spiritually speaking I spend more time meditating on the Nine Noble Virtues as a way to learn where I need to grow. I am not trying to get rid of sin out of my life, praying that God is gracious, etc. I have come to see some things as normal and human, not sinful. My goal now is to build character, not remove sin because I think sin is a made up imaginary concept. I meditate on the good things, not the bad things. I grow the good in me, rather than trying to deny my humanity by calling it sinful. I find it makes me much happier and far more at ease in this world.
Conclusion:
After concluding that the Bible is a human book with no proof of inspiration and the sin is a concept made up by the writers of the Bible. There are only two things left on my four objections to Christianity. The first is the other imaginary thing the Bible creates which is the solution to sin being Salvation in Christ and finally, the god of the Bible seems to have very suspect standards of justice.
You will have to hang on a while though as next week I will talk about how I can as a Deist, Humanist Pagan celebrate Thanksgiving. The week after that I will talk about Why I am a Humanist. Then I will get to my third theological objection to Christianity on the first Thursday of December. The remaining schedule for Odin’s Eye for the year looks like this:
November 22 – Why I Celebrate Thanksgiving (as a Deist, Humanist Pagan).
November 29 – Why I Am a Humanist
December 6 – Objections to Christianity – Part 3 – Salvation through Christ – An Imaginary Man Made Solution.
December 13 – Why I Am A Pagan
December 21 – Yule
December 28 – Objections to Christianity – Part 4 – The Justice of the God (Hell)
Then it will be on to the New Year.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
If there has been one thing I have learned in the last few month’s it is that people for some reason trust a person who is more religious than one who is not. I am not sure what the congregation reacted the strongest to when I left my last church, the fact that I had an emotional affair, or that I left the faith. I think if had been just the first I might have gotten off with lesser consequences from them but the notion that I, a pastor, had a crisis of faith seemed to bother them more than the affair. At least for some.
There is a prevailing notion that a religious leader is more honest and truthful than one who is not. We see it in politics every year as one candidate or another with come out and declare their faith, quote from the Bible or declare how their faith in God has made them a better candidate than the other one.
I know for myself I have noted a change in how people perceive what I say. I even had one guy say my opinion was now more invalid because I no longer had faith. So much for basing assessment of validity on reason and the rules of logic. The truth is while we may gravitate to religious leaders, they my be even more damning as far as leadership direction and motivation than their non-religious counterparts.
Does being religious make a person a better leader or just a more devious one? One that uses the politics of religion to get votes and support. To the wolves and ravens:
Needs (Geri):
Does a good leader need to be religious? I am not sure high ethics and morality are found in being religious. I mean even in Christianity, the ethics of Christians can get inconsistent and even diabolical. The Calvinist doctrine of election is most certainly something that led to the American notion of manifest destiny that probably single-handed was the most responsible philosophy that lead to the western expansion of the United States and the wiping out of the ‘non-elect’ Native Americans. Not exactly a positive high ethical moment when you use faith to justify genocide and theft. I don’t think there is any need for a leader to be religious at all because their religion being a force for good or bad really can depend on the religion and its worldview.
Wants (Freki):
Do we then still want a leader to be religious? I guess that would depend on who you are. Christians want Christian leaders; Muslims want Islamic leader, etc. Why? Because then those groups know their values have a better chance of being respected. The problem is this same issue becomes a way of excluding other faiths and systems of understanding the world. It should also be noted that religion more often than not causes people to believe things about reality that are not true and for that to affect public policy is dangerous. People want religious leaders because they want to push that particular faith’s agenda, not because being religious makes a leader a better or more sound one.
Reason (Huginn):
My problem with bringing reason into this discussion is that leadership and following one often has much more to do emotion. Very few honestly assess a leader for their leadership qualities. Reason actually tells us that people are stupid and follow people because those people share the same associations with them. Even of that person’s character is suspect, they will still follow them because they are ‘one of us’.
Donald Trump and evangelical Christians are a classic case in point. During the primaries Ben Carson supporters were basing Trump as immoral due to his past associations with Democrats and the fact he was divorced a remarried several times. There was also the fact that he had affairs while he was married. As an example of Christian moral character, Donald Trump was and is not the best, Yet, the moment it was clear he was the candidate of choice, they flipped and started saying what a godly Christian man he was. Yeah, evangelicals being hypocrites once again is not new, but this was the most blatant flip-flop I had ever seen and I was still a minister at the time.
From a reason standpoint being religious is the reasonable thing to do if you want religious people to blindly follow you, so Trump immediately made a show of getting prayed for and quoting the Bible. He was elected with a majority of Evangelical support. So it gets you elected but it’s obvious that being religious also gets people to leave their ethical standards to vote for you.
Wisdom (Muninn):
Wisdom when it looks at history cannot support the notion that a leader being a zealous religious devotee is a good idea. Religion has been used to justify more wars, genocides, rapes and other things no rational caring person would consider good. It takes religion to make otherwise good people do evil things. Give such a person power and you have magnified the evil that he can make good people do. Power in the wrong hands is already dangerous, religious zealots in leadership magnify this a hundred fold.
Conclusion:
I want to make it clear here, I am not really saying you can’t be in leadership and be religious. I am saying that probably given that we don’t need a leader to be religious to be effective, nor is it always wanted. Reason and wisdom say that it actually might not be good idea for a leader to be a zealot religiously in order to be fair to people of all faiths or those who lack faith at all.
I want to make it also clear Trump’s morality is not the issue here with me. I really don’t care as long as a leader is effective what his bedroom habits are. This issue for me is the danger of those who are religious who follow him, like the Evangelicals in how simply because a man quotes the Bible and bows his head in prayer, he must be godly. Therefore those same Evangelicals will follow him to damnation with the country and liberty as collateral damage. It might actually be more damning to freedom and liberty for a leader to be religious in truth.
Personally, I have found it interesting that people challenge the truth of what I say these days far more. Now if this was purely about lies told in the past, i could understand it to an extent. But it seems to be more than that. I am not ‘one of us’ with a lot of people anymore and so the tribalism of life comes in more fully. The real funny part is I have actually gotten more honest in the last few months than I have been in a long time. So much so, some people don’t like it.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
We don’t pray here – we figure God, the gods and goddesses, or whatever powers that be either know already, don’t give a fuck, or are busy with more important matters than our petty stuff. We also kind of assume that they expect us to do stuff that we can do for ourselves, and that we will do them ourselves and not be lazy. We also believe in being good friends, so we don’t presume on our friendship with the powers that be by asking them all the time for stuff while giving them nothing in return.
We also don’t take an offering here. We figure the powers that be probably don’t need it. Let’s be honest, offerings are not giving to the divine powers, they are given to an organization to support it. Just being honest. God, the gods or whatever never see a dime, farthing or peso of that money; it all goes to the church, mosque or shrine.
Today’s Pagan pulpit celebrates the life of man who probably was the best front man in Rock and Roll ever. Period. Given that a movie has been recently released about his life, it is only fitting that on this day the Pagan Pulpit pays tribute to the front man of the legendary rock band Queen – Freddie Mercury.
Opening Song: Hammer to Fall – Queen:
I start with a lesser known song by Queen. Don’t get me wrong this song is known, but it’s just a straight rock song. It is Rock n Roll of the era and actually stands out because of it. Queen was a rock band that defied genre classification because every song was so different. This one is classic rock and roll and quite frankly really good rock and roll. “To those that stand proud, in the shadow of the mushroom cloud.” Cold War Song as well and one I relate to very well.
Poem:
Not so much a poem this week as a quote about lyrics and poetry by Freddie. I think in part nails the problem I had with poetry for years which was trying to find meaning in them instead of discovering it. Sometimes when looking at lyrics and poetry, it just hits you and that’s when you know what it means.
Meditation:
Song of Preparation: Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen:
I don’t really have to say anything here about Queen’s probably most recognized song and the most ironic. It is because their producer wouldn’t do this song, Queen left him and went elsewhere and the rest if history. Their magnum opus that moved them from being a rock band to a legend.
Text:
I am not afraid to speak out and say the things that I want to, or do the things I want to do. So I think in the end being nature and being actually genuine is what wins, and I hope it comes out in my songs. – Freddie Mercury
Sermon:
As I read this quote I was struck by the phrase ‘actually genuine’. I wish I could find such people or even better be such a person myself. It seems this world wants to tell you ‘be yourself’ until you actually do it and then the refrain becomes – “not like that.” People don’t really mean that ‘be yourself’ what they mean is ‘be yourself as long as it doesn’t offend me’ or ‘stays within the normal parameters of what is acceptable’.
Freddie Mercury definitely hits the thing that people don’t like – someone who is actually genuine. Someone who truly speaks their mind and are themselves. He lived that and it made him remembered and legendary.
I think we all know what it takes to be successful, we all know what it would be to be truly ourselves. Most of us chicken out because we perceive the cost becomes to great. We settle. People like Freddie Mercury shame us though – he didn’t settle. I think he wrestled with it the same as us, but he was not going to give up what he wanted to be or say just to please others.
I want to be like that. I am tired of compromising what I say and do at times just so people like me. I want to be actually genuine.
Parting Song: Live Aid – Queen Full Concert – Queen:
Probably the best live rock concert ever. Less than 25 minutes but no one who saw it live forgets it regardless if they were actually there or watched it on MTV. The Movie Bohemian Rhapsody takes out two songs but this is the actual tape of the whole thing. Enjoy the ride.
I said for a long time that if I wasn’t a Christian I would be a Deist, because it is the most rational position because of the ignorance of mankind. We don’t know a lot of things, so to maintain that there might be a Divine power out there is simply a rational statement. It’s possible and even atheists admit this. Most atheists aren’t screaming into the microphone that people who believe in the divine are stupid, they just maintain that they don’t believe in a divine power themselves. They also like Laurence Krauss above admit that we are ignorant, so we can’t dismiss the possibility. Epistemologically, we are all in a sense agnostics except the religious who apparently think they have it all figured out.
I know a lot of my friends are worried because I am not a Christian anymore. I even had my counselor ask if I had renounced Christ. I almost laughed because if my salvation or damnation depends on my saying or not saying words, then I am sure that’s more pivotal rather than living your life with virtue in mind? Your actions can be totally evil, but as long as you don’t renounce Christ, you are good to go to heaven? I am sure someone will eventually say to me “I love you and I just don’t want to see you in hell.” Did you ever ask yourself the question: Why should he or I go to hell in the first place and is that justice? More on that later in Odin’s Eye in weeks to come.
Faith:
As a deist I can have faith in a creator, in the divine. I can’t really say what that divine power is however. What this means is I also don’t know what the divine’s actual expectations are. What I am left with is to engage a lot of reason with my faith and that my friends is a far more powerful combination than religion and faith.
Religion:
As far as I can tell all religions are man-made and their holy books are written by men. I cannot completely dismiss that those men might have been honest and genuine in their intentions. I also cannot deny for sure that they may not have encountered the divine power that actually exists. What I might say is that they all interpreted those things in the light of their preconceived religious world view. Casting those experiences in something they already understood and then adding their own opinions and spin to it.
As a deist, I really am no longer religious. I am however still spiritual in some regards. I take however as the deist axiom that ‘God gave us reason not religion’.
Theology:
I can still reason about the divine. I just don’t have to deal with the mucky muck of trying to figure out special revelation or revealed religion. I am left with creation to tell me through engaging it with my reason, what the divine might be like. I could make mistakes in judgment, but the one thing I am no longer doing in my theology is accepting as final arbiter someone else’s opinion about God like it is fact that cannot be questioned. That includes Paul, Moses and Muhammad.
Spirituality:
I think religions tap into spirituality and that is why they exist, but also it is why they all will work in this regard. You can also be spiritual without them. Meditation for instance has been rationally explored and the reason it works is that it is basically a human being learning to calm down, think and be at peace. It’s why even as a deist I can be spiritual but it is far more me trying to find my way in this world, than understanding the divine.
Conclusion:
I have heard deism is the a logical progress which ends in atheism. I am not sure that is true and the whole logical progression/evolution of religion thing has never appealed to me as genuine or always true. I really don’t find atheism to be rational at this point given the colossal ignorance of mankind. At the same time I get it. I don’t bear the atheist any ill will because I do understand why someone would follow that path.
For me the path is deism for while I think. I can have a faith that is rational taking into account my own ignorance. I don’t have to be religious to be spiritual in truth. Theology is a little more difficult but still possible. I guess I just need to see where the path ultimately takes me.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
We don’t pray here – we figure God, the gods and goddesses, or whatever powers that be either know already, don’t give a fuck, or are busy with more important matters than our petty stuff. We also kind of assume that they expect us to do stuff that we can do for ourselves, and that we will do them ourselves and not be lazy. We also believe in being good friends, so we don’t presume on our friendship with the powers that be by asking them all the time for stuff while giving them nothing in return.
We also don’t take an offering here. We figure the powers that be probably don’t need it. Let’s be honest, offerings are not giving to the divine powers, they are given to an organization to support it. Just being honest. God, the gods or whatever never see a dime, farthing or peso of that money; it all goes to the church, mosque or shrine.
Probably and additional announcement is that the Pagan pulpit will be more and more taking on a more personal touch – mine. I really am kind of combining a lot of things here from an old blog that I liked. It will be my musings on things from music to poems and other things. My thoughts will be front and center and they are about my weekly journey. If by sharing these things with you, you are helped a little in your own journey than that is bonus and a joy to me.
Opening Song: Metallica – Creeping Death (Live Seattle 1989)
One of my favorite Metallica songs. The final plague on the Egyptians turned into a metal song. Awesome.
Poem:
“Awaiting the Valkyrie”
The war of life will someday claim my soul.
May I live a life worthy of song.
Broken and wounded I may be,
But my heart longs to see the Valkyrie
To take me to a place of the honored dead.
Whose stories forever ring throughout the ages
The soul at last at peace
Celebrated and immortal.
– Ed Raby, Sr. – October 30, 2018
This poem probably speaks to the occasional long that we all have for things to be over. When my end comes, I would like to be remembered well.
Meditation:
People ask me all the time why I like stories. Well because all stories resonate with my own. It’s what makes our existence common; that we all are a story.
Song of Preparation:
This isn’t my favorite Three Door’s Song, but it definitely hits the heart of all of us in what we want and how we feel about those closest to us that have passed into the unknown.
Text: Havamal 77
“Your cattle shall die; your kindred shall die; you yourself shall
die; one thing I know which never dies: the judgment on each one dead.”
Sermon:
Coming off Halloween there is always that element where one thinks about death. I mean we have skulls and bones everywhere. The undead walk from zombies to vampires to mummies. Our popular mythology is laced with characters that overcome and cheat death. In religion, the afterlife is a common thread.
When I was a Christian, the view I often had been that heaven or some afterlife was necessary to give life meaning and purpose. Perhaps this is one truth that many religions hit on, as death seems to take away everything. Ecclesiastes is a great book for pointing this out but the conclusion is a bit of logical leap as the only meaning to life it gives is to fear God and do what he tells you. I don’t think that works for me anymore or for perhaps a lot of you.
The painful truth is that death might genuinely be the end of it all for each of us or that the afterlife is nothing like we expect. That’s the problem, it really is an unknown.
So how to find purpose and meaning to life with the reality of death ever before you? There have been many theories and perhaps this is why we are incurably religious as a species. We don’t like the thought that we will end. We want to continue and so we hope that something is on the other side of death. But in the end I think Marcus Aurelius hit it on the head. We should live a good life. If God, the gods or whatever are just, they will look at the virtues you have lived by not how devoted you were. If they are not just, then we should not want to serve them anyway. If there isn’t any gods or afterlife; then well, we have the memories in the hearts of those we loved as our final thoughts.
Of course you are left to yourself as to which virtues make up your good life. For me the Nine Noble Virtues of Asatru form a good solid list and one that, regardless of who I meet and what religion they may or may not have, can be respected. The Havamal reminds us that the one thing that does not die is the judgement of the dead. The best way then to face death is to live life and live it fully.
Parting Song: Zergananda – The Path to Valhalla
Epic and one view of many. I personally think any view of the afterlife that involves courageously facing ones death is a good one.
Have a Great Week
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Of course you are left to yourself as to which virtues make up your good life. For me the Nine Noble Virtues of Asatru form a good solid list and one that, regardless of who I meet and what religion they may or may not have, can be respected. The Havamal reminds us that the one thing that does not die is the judgement of the dead. The best way then to face death is to live life and live it fully.
The Grey Wayfarer 