“Objections to Christianity – Part 2 – Sin: An Imaginary Man-Made Problem” (Revised August 2019) – Odin’s Eye – Theological Objections to Christianity

August 15, 2019August 16, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Thor’s Day

August 2019 Revision Notes:

It has been almost a year since I wrote these originally starting in November of 2018. When I got to the rotation in Odin’s Eye the last time where I was going to deal with these objections again, I saw no need for revision but rather simply laid it out there that no one had responded to them to that date and moved on into the rest of the Rotation for Odin’s Eye.

This time though I feel that I need to spend four weeks of Odin’s Eye doing some revisions that will either clarify my position, add some other thoughts or edit for other issues. Such edits will be marked by italics. When archived, they will appear under the original post on this Page: My Four Theological Objections to Christianity

Mostly though this is a cut and paste with some revisions. As the series goes on there will be more revisions as I can see the need for things to change a bit in the other three objections. In part two, I felt the need to add a few paragraphs for hopefully a clearer explanation.

Introduction:

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.

Now I want to emphasize that this does not disprove sin’s existence, but it puts on the same plane as believing in a lot of things that we believe exist but have no proof of. The issue then is should we order our lives on faith in the idea that man is sinful, or go based on our own observations of human nature and conclude that if anything we can have faith in the fact that all human beings are human.

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. Yes, I am saying that religion, particularly the Christian notion of sin, may have has a great deal of influence in causing my depressive issues.

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’s about growing into the best human being I can be.

Note: Unlike the atheist, I have not discarded the idea of a spiritual side to mankind at all, but rather I am saying that sin is not something I believe is real about it. Humanity is more complicated than he is all bad or all good.

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.

One good example of this is my changing attitudes about sex and sexual desire. I feel sexual desire is normal in humanity and it is normal to feel a sexual desire toward a lot of different people. Lust is made up to me unless you are using the term to describe passionate sexual desire which is neither good nor bad. What might be a factor in sexual desires is wisdom and reason saying that not all sexual interaction is beneficial. Some of it could be detrimental. The real issue is that sex in and of itself is not sinful in any form. Enjoy, but be smart and wise.

In my case, sexual fidelity is part of my marriage because that is the oath I swore as a Chrisitan that I still honor. If it wasn’t, having sex with another woman would not necessarily be a violation of fidelity as there is no sin to it, but one might challenge my wisdom. Like it or not people get jealous and envious and that can lead to relationship issues. There are also cultural expectations to consider which do have an effect on how a person is perceived. This is not about sin anymore is the point, but rather what effects it might have on relationships and troth issues may or may not be affected depending on the specific nature of oaths of fidelity.

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.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Revival – Asatru (Part 5)” – The Pagan Pulpit

August 11, 2019August 11, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sol’s Day

Announcements:

We don’t pray here – we figure God, the gods, 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 given to the divine powers, they are given to an organization to support it. Just being honest. God, the gods or whatever never sees a dime, farthing or peso of that money; it all goes to the church, mosque or shrine.

Theme Song: ‘Herr Mannelig’ – Garmarna

English Translation: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/herr-mannelig-sir-mannelig.html

Meditation:

The situation is always changing and it is not always in your favor. Regardless there is always the best way to play your hand and it is your obligation to find it.

Text:

If you want more details about Asatru, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Sermon:

It is hard to say when the revival of the interest in Pagan Norse Religion really began. In some cases, we might say that it was preserved through family traditions and merging pagan traditions with Chrisitan ones. There was also a limited amount of writing done by historians and literature experts on Norse Mythology and religious practice.

Some argue that it was the early 20th century with the interest in Germanic ancient culture by the Germans that saw the start of it. It is also a criticism that it might be colored by the Nazis but it is probably more likely to be the case of the Nazi’s using cultural trends to their advantage as far as PR. Symbols and history are often coopted by those that rule to form a romanticism they tap into. The romanticism though already existed because a lot of it can be traced back to the 19th century long before the nazi’s perverted the mythology and the Swastika. I and many other people who study Asatru and history would say the chief deity of the Nazi party was Adolf Hitler himself, not Odin, Thor or Tyr.

In any case, in the last 70 years or so a revival of interest in ancient Northern European mythology has arisen. Becoming more popular, as Diane Paxton observes, starting with the writings in England with Tolkein and CS Lewis. Robert E. Howard with Conan chimed in during the 1950s. Is it any wonder that I have an interest in this mythology when what sparked my interest was these great writers and my own heritage.

In 1969, the same year I was born, the Odinist Fellowship was founded, followed by Viking Brotherhood in 1971 and Asatru Free Assembly in 1976. All in America. In Iceland, Asatru became an accepted religion by their parliament in 1973 thus opening up the most direct route to a religious revival of ancient ways through Asatru.

What has followed has been a process of Norse paganism in Asatru arising and organizing into various groups. The 1990s saw a great deal of expansion and development. Publications and books are becoming more and more frequent. I would say interest has been revived and increase due to the television series Vikings among many others.

For me, my personal story of ‘conversion’ to Asatru is a long one. Like I said, I loved fantasy books from an early age. devouring CS Lewis, Tolkien, and Howard. Conan became a favorite hero of mine along with Gandalf. I was a Dungeons and Dragons player and Dungeon Master for many years and that has this culture and religion as a large part of it. The more I learned the more it fascinated me. I suppose the crisis moment and conversion point would be me leaving Christianity for good last year and realizing my need for a new code of conduct. I looked at many warrior codes, but Asatru appealed more than all of them because of this connection to my culture, history, and interests. My pagan tendencies tend to line up very much with Asatru.

This ends part one of my Asatru analysis. Next will be a discussion of many of the Norse gods and goddesses and their significance to the followers of Asatru.

Parting Thought:

Paganism does have some bit of a ‘dark’ side. In that, most of us will do terrible things if the ones we love are threatened. There is no turn the other cheek or forgiveness without restitution. And if the person opposing us doesn’t offer us restitution or threatens to take what is ours, then we can get such restitution by other means. You might say justice has a different meaning to us. Your best course of action in dealing with us is being honest and respectful and mind your own business.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Finding a New Muse – Blog Notes” – The Rabyd Skald

August 10, 2019August 10, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Saturn’s Day

I know, right. It’s a Rabyd Skald Post that isn’t The Grey and The Wayfarer and thus isn’t my soul bleeding all over the place. I had to write the most recent series, emotional baggage and all of it; but it has been an emotional roller coaster, and quite frankly I need to move on and this is me taking the first steps in that. Whenever I have turned a new corner, I have turned to writing to help me guide me on the path, and this time will be no exception. This post is a discussion of an issue and some notes on the future of this blog and what you can expect to see.

The issue is the loss of my muse and the search for a new one. I have had several muses over the years. All of them female. The first one was my first love. The second was a love for writing that I developed with my first blogs. I kind of imagined her as a loving teacher standing over my shoulder. More recently I imagined her as one of my friends who argued with my internal editor a lot. My last one was Miss Salty and as you know she is now more of a ghost that haunts me rather than a muse these days. My wife has never acted as a muse for me because that is not the nature of our relationship. She inspires a lot of virtues in me, but not creativity. So I search for a new one.

This may actually be my first attempt at looking at spirituality from a pagan point of view to find a new muse. To find some inspiration in a spiritual idea to form into a lovely woman who will inspire me. Why female? Because when all else has failed, when I think of the women who have inspired me over the years as a man, they all have that one quality that inspires my creativity – femininity itself. The problem is all of them have had the weakness of being more of stay at home women who were never warriors and I think that is part of the issue. My muse needs to be a combination of a strong female warrior and a passionate creative lover. Freya personified but not Freya. A shieldmaiden but also a skald in her own right. Femininity personified but Viking femininity.

I think the first steps to this will be to make this blog take the Viking and Norse mythology theme it has more complete. One of the things I can do right away is the greeting is for each post. You know, ‘Happy Saturn’s Day’ – except Saturn is a Roman god and actually presents the only real problem in this change. Sun’s Day becomes Sol’s Day and Moon’s Day becomes Mani’s Day. But who to pick for Saturn’s replacement? Well, let’s see. 1) all of these are Norse gods or goddesses. There are four Norse gods represented: Mani, Tyr, Odin, and Thor, each with their own day. There are three goddesses represented: Sol, Frigg, and Freya with Frigg and Freya sharing a day. So I think it should be a goddess with her own day to balance things out. But who to chose? I guess I would accept suggestions, so let me know in the comments. But in any case, I will make a decision by next week.

Speaking of comments, I am going to do something brave. I have decided to open up the comments to where if you are approved once then you don’t have to be approved again. I am going to still monitor this closely because of past problems, but I think most of the people ho write comments can be trusted. Starting Sol’s Day you will be able to do this. Don’t abuse the privilege, be kind to one another.

The other thing is the post-rotation and the one thing this last mini-series has taught me is that I could do the journal Posts every other week. Thus I could open up every other week to write on other things. To do other series either fiction or non-fiction which does represent my style a little bit from All Things Rabyd. In addition, Weekends have always been a bugaboo of what to do but a rotation where I post stuff on Saturday and the extra slot on Sol’s Day would be nice places for creative writing.

Ultimately, what I want is more flexibility in my weekly agenda, but at the same time some solid rotation that keeps me writing on different subjects and in different forms. I will drop another The Rabyd Skald once I have made some final decisions.

I am looking at this as moving on. I need to move this blog from dealing with the past so much and talk more about my journey through life. My Pilgrimage. I hope some changes will help me do that.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Objections to Christianity – Part 1 – The Bible’s Inspiration by God” (Revised August 2019) – Odin’s Eye – Theological Objections to Christianity.

August 8, 2019August 8, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Thor’s Day

August 2019 Revision Notes:

Mostly though this is a cut and paste with some revisions. As the series goes on there will be more revisions as I can see the need for things to change a bit in the other three objections. In this one, however, the objective remains pretty much the same.

Introduction:

I want to state upfront, this is a long post. I want to be complete as possible in stating this objection and the ones that follow. Mostly as I will state later that I for a long time wanted answers; I still do. It was hard leaving my faith because I wanted so desperately to believe. Reason itself eventually prevailed and I will stand by that decision. The reason I am putting a lot of words into this is that I still would accept answers: if they could be proven rationally that Christianity is the true religion.

I have written on my crisis of faith a couple of times. Despite some people’s assertion that this was due to personal events, it actually started in 2015 with my second objection which is that I think ‘sin’ is a man-made up concept. It started when I preached a message about sin and I had heard a quote that week from a critic of Christianity that basically said sin was made up and that because of it Christianity solves a problem of its own making.

I will get into this moment in more detail in my second objection post, but it got me rethinking everything in the light of skepticism and I began to form four theological objections for which I still have no satisfactory answers. While the sin question got my original thinking going, it is this first question involving the Bible and divine inspiration that forms the foundation of the other three.

Now, I want to state for the record that I am no amateur when it comes to the Bible or Theology. 1) I have degrees in both Biblical Studies (BA) and Theological Studies (MA). 2) I am a ‘professional’ theologian and have been since 1996. 3) I was a Christian from the time I was eight and as I approach my 50th birthday that would have been close it forty-two years. 4) I was a pastor (now retired) for twenty years and have spent many years since school studying the Bible and engaging theological questions. 5) I have had several crisis moments in my theology and up until two to three years ago I could answer them all or found ways to explain them. Not anymore.

I will also say I am not hostile to Christians, I get it. It took me a long time to face the facts of the objections I will present in this series. I still am open to anything that answers them. My largest problem when I discuss this is people sometimes get offended because I seem to be very aggressive, but I am not really doing that, just being as honest as I can. People don’t always like it when you ask questions that are hard about what they believe. Cognitive dissonance is a real thing, so I get. Understand I am not being hostile to your faith if you have it. I am just being hostile to mine or what mine used to be. That’s because I take as a central core idea that if the God of the Bible is the real god and the Bible is inspired by him, then it should make sense and have rational proof this is so.

Faith:

Bottom Line, faith is trusting in something that you have no evidence for and that is the problem. You hope it is true and you believe it is true, but you don’t know it is true. This is particularly true for many church doctrines and one of the most notable is the divine inspiration of scripture. The reason I can say this is no matter what school of thought you follow in looking at inspiration, there is no evidence that God came down and inspired the Bible. You simply have to believe the simple statement “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” There is no attempt to prove this, just a statement of fact that the reader must simply accept.

An example is probably in order:

“The Rabyd Skald’s writings are inspired by the god Odin. Everything he writes comes straight from the mouth of the god Odin.”

You say ridiculous. I ask why? You say because I simply have made an assertion and have offered no proof that what I say is true. I want to tell you the Bible does the exact same thing with the exact same level of proof that God came down and directly inspired the writers of the Bible – none. It’s pure faith, no evidence even from the Bible itself. The Bible writers simply assert this; they never prove it.

Religion:

Looking at the doctrine of inspiration historically, once again we have no proof of the inspiration of Scripture by God, just the creation of the doctrine of inspiration and various councils of men deciding which books are inspired. There is no record of God coming down and saying – “these books are my inspired word.” Just groups of men doing that. That is what you actually see.

It stands to reason that religions do this. In the end, you need a common core of beliefs and authority and it is far easier to make a group of writings do that because it has a greater chance of standing the test of time. Especially if you inject a tradition of copying and transcribing these books from one generation to the next. Even in this though, two problems develop. 1) People abuse the authority of said books and can twist their meaning and 2) the transcription of said books can be flawed.

The second brings up an additional inspiration question which is: ‘Is the Bible still inspired even though people have put mistakes into it and changed it from one language to the next where meaning is going to get changed?’ The human factors are definitely present in the Bible. Does that undermine inspiration or simply point to the fact that the Bible is a wholly human book? Because we don’t really have proof God is involved, are we just making up the whole divine inspiration thing in order to make this human book have more significance?

Theology:

I spent a great deal of time and digital ink pouring over this question of inspiration. On my blog All Things Rabyd (which is still there although no longer active) I spent nine posts looking at the various theories of divine inspiration. You can find the link to all of them here. I eventually settled on Dynamic Inspiration as the best possible explanation to handle the human element of the bible. That much like the doctrines of Christ state Jesus was 100% God and 100% Man, so was the bible the same way. It satisfied me for a while but there was a fatal flaw in the whole thing.

The flaw? I still had no proof positive that the 100% divine inspiration part was real. There is no photograph of God reaching into the head of Paul or Moses inspiring them to write things. I mean you could say God is the inspiration for the Bible like a person might be inspired to write about nature from being outside. There is however no proof that God took an active hand in telling the authors what to write or how to write it. That is purely a matter of whether you believe that or not. It really is blind faith when you consider that particular question.

Spirituality:

I will probably handle other objections involving scripture at a later date. My purpose today is to get the main parts of my first objection to Christianity out there. The question always comes – do I still read the Bible and what value do I place on it? Well, yes I do. I value it in that it contains a lot of ‘truth’ small ‘t’. I just don’t think it’s the Truth with a capital ‘T‘. Rather a lot of men wrote about their sincere belief in God. God inspired them in that way and they wrote but in the end, it was human inspiration ABOUT the divine. It was not God coming down and whispering in their ear what to write, no matter what their claims.

It also, because it is a human book and not divine to me, contains a lot of Bull Shit and spiritual opinion by ancient authors which may or may not be valid. You still have to use a lot of judgment in looking at the Bible because if some of it is objectively true then the god of the Bible becomes at times both inconsistent and a sadistic tyrant.

For me, I still draw a lot of inspiration from the Bible. Some of its stories are great. It has men wrestling with the question about God. Some of the teachings of Christ are some of the best on human relationships you will ever see. That said, it is only one avenue of being inspired, not the only one and it is a very human book. In short, it has its flaws, and I think some of the morality it promotes could be questioned as to whether it actually does good or not.

Conclusion:

When the doctrine of inspiration goes, then you can look at the Bible objectively. This caused me to really realize the god of the Bible has a few problems. 1) Sin seems to be made up as a concept and used to control the behavior of people 2) The plan of salvation God comes up with does not speak well of supreme being because it makes God both sadistic and masochistic. 3) God’s justice seems a little suspect especially when you consider final judgment.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Naked Before Who?” – Odin’s Eye – The Grey Wayfarer’s Spiritual Side

August 1, 2019August 1, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Thor’s Day.

Discussion:

On May 17, 2013, I wrote this post: Naked Before God – Part 1 – The Positive Spiritual Side of Nakedness. It was the first post in a series of posts called Naked Before God. At the time, I was trying to reconcile some findings I had found in my biblical study of nakedness and current Christian practice and its perception of nudity. At the end of that post, I reflected on six positive spiritual aspects of nudity. Vulnerability, Openness, Intimacy, Genuineness, Wholeness, and Equality.

Those qualities are very spiritual when you think about them as they go to the core of who we are and how we perceive ourselves in relationship to others and the world. Of course, the problem with this series of posts now; for me personally, is what do I mean about the word ‘God’?

I personally still find being an at-home nudist beneficial. I am actually quite private about it with no real exhibitionist tendencies being introverted as I am. That said, I am as comfortable in my own skin as I am in clothes. Actually sometimes more comfortable because of the spiritual qualities I outlined so long ago still remain true despite my change in faith/religion/spirituality. My issue is redefining how this means to me spiritually. The change is not the spiritual qualities of nudity so much as the notion that the Christian god is the one I am naked before is no longer true to me.

I suppose this is going to take some time and meditation to redefine, but the problem seems to be that some of these spiritual qualities are dependent on there being some divine force to be naked in front of in the first place. There is also the issue of whether such a divine force ~~gives as shit~~ cares about it. Yet, I feel at these times that I have spiritual peace or at least a better possibility of spiritual peace than at others.

Time to Look Through the Eye:

“To see the truth, change one eye for another”

Faith:

I know it sounds strange, but I feel that my faith in myself grows in my times of spiritual meditation and part of that is connected to the fact I meditate in the nude. All the spiritual qualities combine at the time. I am open to the universe around me and vulnerable to it. I can see myself for who I truly am (genuineness) – equal to every other man and woman. There is a non-sexual feeling of intimacy with myself and the world I don’t experience otherwise. I am the whole and true me and me alone. This faith or whatever you want to call it has lead to a lot of inner healing for me. To those of you out there who practice ‘magic’, is this magic?

Religion:

Of course, I have to from time to time shuck off the shackles of my former religion which trains people to be ashamed of being naked. I now believe this is what leads to a lot of body image problems and poor self-image problems for people. There was a fear developed in me from an early age by my past religion that if I was naked I should be ashamed of it, my body and being naked automatically lead to sexual sinful thoughts. None of this is objectively true, but if you are going to dominate and manipulate a person, engaging in shaming people for who they are in truth is a good start. Nudity and sex are great targets for this. I don’t buy any of it anymore but the indoctrination still has a few things that cause irrational fear that I have to throw off.

Theology:

It is interesting that in pagan theology, there seem to be a lot less moral codes about nakedness. If anything, there is at worst neutrality about the subject, or at best blatant positivity about its benefits. The naked pagan walking in the woods is probably a common and an accepted image. We are human and come into this world naked. It is our most natural state and foundational spiritual state, and so it is considered beneficial by most. Whatever power that be that made/evolved us, doesn’t seem to mind our nakedness, so why should we.

Spirituality:

If there is a spiritual challenge to nudity for me now it is twofold. 1) The dumping of artificial man-made social mores that no longer apply to me. 2) Coming to terms with the fact there is a call in my heart to more social nudism. The first I find it easier every day I spend in the buff doing normal and everyday things. The second is the simple fact that much of the spiritual qualities I have outlined that nudity possesses are incomplete without others to experience them with you. It is a value shift for me that is probably been long in coming, considering how long I have been addressing the subject of spiritual nudity. It isn’t a question of spiritual negativity anymore for me, but a practical question.

Conclusion:

The main question of this post still remains as to who I am naked in front of anymore. If not god, then who.? Do such powers even care? Mostly I think I am naked with myself and coming to terms with the fact that I am very comfortable with it and becoming more so every day. It is a part of my daily at-home activities particularly when I am alone. Only time will tell if I gain a more spiritual understanding of myself and the people and world around me as a result. There is a part of my journey that now involves walking this path.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Viking/Germanic Paganism – Asatru (Part 3)” – The Pagan Pulpit

July 28, 2019July 28, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Theme Song: “Song of Odin (A Cappella)” by Alchemical Poetry

Damn son, this kid can sing and all the parts too. Salute.

Meditation:

It depends very much on what you value: power at the cost of freedom or freedom which has a power all its own.

Text:

If you want more details about Asatru, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Sermon:

My purpose for going through the history of paganism in regards to Asatru is to assess whether it is possible that the current practitioners of Asatru have as a genuine foundation the beliefs fo old. It is also to point out that once we hit the Christian invasion that for the most part religion was not a cause for people to fight so much as needs and wants That would change with Christianity’s arrival.

It can be simply stated that as the area entered the Viking era, religion had become far more sophisticated. The pantheon much more developed and regional differences smoothed over. To the area’s credit, it seems that any religious differences were actually swallowed up by the mythology itself where the Vanir and Aesir both made peace and one pantheon formed. Rituals evolve and the priesthood of the pagans established.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, the areas did gain some distinction as the Scandinavians pretty much became separated and developed their own lines of religious thought while the Germanic peoples on the continent continued to be influenced by the Empire’s final gasps.

What the Viking people became was a culture based on the old gods, fishing, herding, and some farming. They became very adept at either trading for the other things they needed and raiding for the rest. Their gods evolved to reflect their culture and became integral parts of it with festivals, rituals, and calendar. The population grew and the Viking leaders began to adopt the style of government on the continent known as feudalism. This caused migration and that lead to the Vikings doing their raiding more and more frequently not just for loot but for land.

The one thing religion did id create a ‘professional’ clergy for the gods. The hof was a place where the gods were worshiped and the idea of being a friend of the gods or a particular god is born. Being ‘Thorsman’ of “Maiden of Freya” is reflected in this time and some Scandinavian names still reflect this. The idea of worship in one place – the hof while the rulers were in their ‘hall’ was in some respects the first ideas of religion and state being separate but integrated.

For my part, I like this part of history because everything is unspoiled by Christianity. If I had lived then, I would be an Odin’s Man and perhaps a teller of tales – A Skald. It would have been my desired profession to keep the stories alive. It makes me wonder if one of my ancestors was a skald or bard.

This, of course, would all change as the pagans and Christians would begin to clash. But it should be noted that modern practitioners of Asatru look a lot to this time for their inspiration. More on these things in the coming weeks.

Parting Thought:

There will always be someone better than you at something. The quest we should be on is self-improvement. The only competition we should have is what we were yesterday.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Paganism: Religion or Spirituality?” – Odin’s Eye – Religion Problems

July 25, 2019July 25, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / 2 Comments

Happy Thor’s Day.

Discussion:

I have little respect or use for religion anymore. That said some things in my spirituality are parts of religions as parts of religious ceremonies and rituals. I suppose you could say that my meditation and my other parts of my morning routine could be considered ‘religious practice’ but that I am not rigged about it. I suppose the definition in paganism between religion and spirituality is a little fuzzy and I kind of like that.

In my readings on paganism in some aspects it is important that it is a religion as in some countries that allows it to be recognized as such and allowed to be practiced. In America, with religious freedom, we sometimes forget that some religion is banned or heavily regulated in other countries so having Asatru be recognized as a religion that can be practiced is important for a lot of reasons.

That said for me personally, I don’t like religion in general and the Abrahamic religions in particular. Weel, to be fair, I dislike it when anyone for any reason tries to force their religion or ideology down my throat and certain religions are notorious for that. Believe what you want, just don’t make me follow your beliefs by force, or force me to live by your moral code.

Time to Look Through the Eye:

“To see the truth, change one eye for another”

Faith:

From a faith standpoint, paganism doesn’t seem like a religion. That is no one in paganism is trying to proselytize me into it. In fact, when I explain my differences to some of them, they nod and say that it is great. I have had a lot of good discussion about it, but no arguments. There is a commonality about faith in the universe and the world around us to give spiritual life and direction but no dogma or creed. We all have the faith that each one of us can shape our own spirituality.

Religion:

There are however pagans who engage in various religious forms of paganism. Asatru, for instance, has its rituals and festivals. You might even say that across the board the celebration of holidays and festivals and events are religious and so in some resepcts, I can see the religious tone to it all. That said you will never hear a pagan speaker tell you that if you don’t do the rituals or attend things then you are a lousy person or going to hell. There is respect for individual choices.

Theology:

Theological systems are also hard to find and often to be blunt all over the place in paganism. There some unified viewpoint about the universe but overarching belief runs the gambit. You know what else, everyone is OK with that. No arguments that end friendships over obscure theological points. There just isn’t that kind of definition of what is true and no authoritative ‘holy book’ to define these things.

Spirituality:

Which is why I lean on the side of it not being a religion but more of a form of spirituality. At the same time, the more religious pagans are OK by me. We don’t have too much to fight about. I enjoy the spiritual side of the parts I practice and the principles of paganism, but the religious aspects I can take or leave at my discretion. so I love it for that reason alone.

Conclusion:

In the Pagan Pulpit, I will be developing this idea more and more as I go through the book I have on Asatru. The issue is how much religion do I want in my spirituality? I guess time will tell how much of a religious pagan I become, if at all.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“Early Pagan Culture – Asatru (Part 2)” – The Pagan Pulpit

July 21, 2019July 21, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Theme Song: “Ancestors” – Lila Lilly

youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWcMO8020X4&w=1072&h=603%5D

Meditation:

People’s time has value. Learn to respect that and you will go a long way to understanding how to properly influence people without manipulation or coercion. Also by making people respect your time you will go a long way to learning to respect yourself.

Text:

If you want more details about Asatru, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Sermon:

My focus as I read the book in this first section on Asatru’s ‘history’ was to note at what spiritual concepts were being developed. As the people migrated but as agriculture also became more prominent. People began to settle but some continued to move around and engage in trade. Governments began to form as a way to deal with human interactions and threats. In all of this spirituality and religion began to develop.

In all of this certain spiritual concepts and ideas were started and began:

The hearth or fire becomes sacred both to spirituality and religion at this time. The fire was life and progress but also dangerous so it had that mysterious quality to our ancestors that they began to see as spiritual. Home and hearth develop at this time as more than just nice feelings but as the center of belief in the gods.
Various pantheons began to spring up all over Northern Europe and the idea of being spiritually inspired becomes common. It is the nature of many of the words that mean inspire that also correspond to the god Odin as his name and the root of ‘inspire’ are the same.
The number three becomes sacred.
There is some evidence that by the bronze age, a trained priesthood existed.
Magic as a concept begins and is practiced.

In the Norse lands, you begin to see the development of rituals involving ships, wagons, phallic men with weapons. There is a golden-haired goddess. You see carved representations and pictures that probably represent the earliest forms of Odin, Thor and Freya worship. Marriage rituals are started here.

The point of all this is to point out that Norse ancestors were developing a fairly sophisticated form of religion and spirituality long before Christ and Christianity. Long before any of the invasions by the Abrahamic religions. The people that would become the Vikings, were very much about the hearth, home, fertility, and being courageous in battle. What we need to understand is that no one was forced into this, it is simply what happened as these people looked at the world around them and tried to find answers to the things they didn’t understand.

Pagans respect each individual own spiritual walk. They don’t impose their views on others because that is not how their religion developed. Each person participated as much as they wished in the way they wished. You actually see this very early on. It is a deep understanding of these ancestors that Asatru takes as its roots.

Parting Thought:

What you are is apparent to everyone. Live your life and the accolades will come to you as you deserve them and who you are will be apparent. No need to brag about it. Those that do are often lying.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

The Family ‘Pagan’? – Odin’s Eye – Paganism

July 18, 2019July 18, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Thor’s Day.

Discussion:

Them: “So you’re a pagan?”

Me: “Sort of, I have pagan tendencies”

Them: “Pagan tendencies?”

Me: “Yeah, I believe the pagan spiritual concepts are pretty interesting, but I am not much into religion anymore, so I am not into that part of it.”

I know this conversation because I have had it a couple times. To say you are spiritual but think all religion is made up is a hard thing for people to grasp. I mean I have my rituals of meditation on the Nine Noble Virtues and my ritual of putting on my pendant for the day but that is pretty much it. Mostly I look at paganism spiritual concepts as a way to address the possibility of spiritual reality. In truth, I lean toward the deist side of things with an unknowable divine creator(s). The paganism simply allows me to reach out with my own sense of love and spirituality and address the question of what that divine creator or creators might be.

The issue of course for my family is that they are mostly Christian with a few exceptions. Mostly though I think they have trouble dealing with their long-time husband, father, and grandfather, who used to be a devout Chrisitan, who now doesn’t even go to church or even pray anymore. n short I have a far easier time adjusting to them than they do to me.

Time to Look Through the Eye:

“To see the truth, change one eye for another”

Faith:

My faith these days is more about lining up my spiritual philosophy of the Nine Noble Virtues with real life. Living virtuously means more to me than the whole mythology of choice thing. I like the Norse myths but the idea that any of those gods actually exist is the real of fantasy and no better or worse than any other mythology out there. For me, Norse mythology is closer to my ancestral roots and resonates with me more. But I ain’t praying to Odin or Thor. If there is any concept I like it is that we don’t pray to them. If there is a divine power of some sort, I would rather have this attitude of standing with them rather than bowing before them.

The reality of my faith is that if there is a god or not is irrelevant to it. If there is my pursuit of virtue should be honored. If there isn’t living by virtue in this world has its own rewards. Either way, this is the reality f choice when it comes to faith.

Religion:

My pagan religious aspects are few:

I meditate on the Nine Noble Virtues every morning along with my goals.
I put my pendant around my neck for the day after taking my shower. Mostly this marks the end of my morning routine.
I try to view all of life as a large spiritual lesson.
I celebrate holidays with my family and do it more with a pagan mindset, which is very easy as Christians have stolen most of the symbols for their holidays from the pagans.

I suppose you could add that I study pagan spirituality and religious practice as like reading about the Norse myths. I suppose if I were to ever join a Brethren it would be more for companionship and common interest. Not really all that different than most people in the church.

Theology:

Human beings are emotional, physical and rational. My theology simply adds spiritual to the mix as a way of tying that all together. There is a unified cohesion to things when you add the spiritual to me. That’s pretty much it.

Spirituality:

That spirituality is what gives me my pagan tendencies as I follow the basics of looking at life through a spiritual eye from time to time. Paganism is very much a matter of individual spiritual taste and I embrace that. mY pagan tendencies fit me and who I am and that is pretty much Ok with every pagan I know.

Conclusion:

I guess i am content to be the family ‘pagan’ for now. I don’t have too many problems with it. So far things are simply awkward when people want to talk about church and Jesus and I don’t really live in that context anymore. Nor do I wish to ever again.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

“The First Heathens – Asatru (Part 1)” – The Pagan Pulpit

July 14, 2019July 14, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Theme Song: ‘Tròdlabùndin (Spellbound)’ – Eivør Pálsdóttir

This is as mysterious and beautiful as a beautiful naked woman in the moonlight.

Translation: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/tr%C3%B8llabundin-spellbound.html

Meditation:

Text:

If you want more details about Asatru, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Sermon:

It is hard to say when the first pagans reached out with their inherent spirituality to try to understand the spiritual world around them. It is known that in roughly 9000 BC as the Ice Age was receding, the first peoples walked into Scandinavia. Basically a hunter and gatherer culture. They revered the nature that was around them and respected it for the wild and untamed thing it was. In discussions on the belief of Giants, the idea that the giants were big monstrosities is debated. What is not debated is that they represented powerful forces of nature – Storm, Hills, Fire, Ice, etc. It is clear these early people respected them – and feared them.

Resources were abundant so hunting, and fishing and gathering continued for some time before agriculture set in. Ancestor worship started in the whole of the Germanic areas of the world. Respect for those who had paved the way and also spirits of nature were worshiped depending on where people were. As they became more sedentary with agriculture, long term relationships with nature spirits developed and more formal worship practices developed as people had more time because of agriculture.

It is this dual purpose in paganism that you see throughout all of them. Respect for the power of the forces of nature on the one hand and yet respect also for the legacy of ancestors who learned to tame those forces and bend them ever so slightly for the will of man. It is this last part that leads I think to the creation of the gods and goddesses. Reveared ancestors go from local hero to legend to diety. It makes me wonder sometimes who the real Odin was.

For myself, I can respect the lessons here. Up here in the north, if you don’t respect the power of a blizzard, they will find your corpse frozen in the morning. Every year, I am reminded of the power of nature in the southern states as Hurricane season hits. At the same time, I can respect the foundation of the past and build on it knowing that men and women of old carved out human existence with their bare hands and have handed their legacy to me at this time. Someday I will hand it off to the future. In both cases, one cannot be anything but humbled.

Parting Thought:

Truth is a difficult concept for some. I don’t hang around them.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

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