Pagan Bloggers with Naturalistic Worldviews
In early August, many Pagans will celebrate Lammas or Lughnasadh. As I type these words, raspberries are ripening on canes, sweet peas rest in their pods, the first tomatoes are blushing, and bees are buzzing in the lavender. There is so much goodness in our gardens, orchards, and farms. Fasting is a time-tested, spiritual practice that can help Pagans to receive these summer gifts in health, joy, appreciation, and thanks.
I agree that it would be nice if we Pagans were completely harmonious and accepting of each other – but by comparison with practically anyone else, we are doing really, really awesome, and no one has killed or even physically attacked anyone, as far as I know. 
Religion is far more than a set of propositions to which we intellectually assent or dissent. Religion is inextricably intertwined with our social networks and our cultural context. And religious behavior, including religious speech, is far more than an expression of belief; it is a performance which binds us to our religious communities. When secularists, atheists, and religious naturalists attack a religion on the basis of the demonstrable falsity of the beliefs of its adherents, we reveal our own ignorance of the complexity of this thing we call religion. 
My honest personal view on this is that I find that the search for transcendence or ecstasy in order to have a “deep religious experience” is frankly hedonistic – Let me explain why.
I hope that moving forward, we are able to disagree respectfully, as friends, to recognize our common goals and community, and sometimes, to join in powerful and moving rituals, regardless of the fact that some of us see the underlying basis of those rituals differently. With that, we might be able to bring a life-centered Paganism to millions, who might fit better into this or that part of our wider Pagan community, with many of us working together to build a better future for the whole web of life.
Opposition to all organization on principle serves nothing but the egos of certain individuals. And it reduces our community to the lowest common denominator — the heckler and the troll. They should not be allowed to define our agendas, because their only agenda is the destruction of all agendas. We need to recognize ego-Paganism for what it is: dead weight for our community. While we need to create space for ego-centered Pagans, we cannot allow them to keep us from coming together to help make the world a better place.
Sure, there’s a giant hole in center of the donut that is Paganism, but who wants donuts without holes? If more and more people are moving to the periphery of Paganism, who cares? Let them eat donut holes, I say!
Today marks the official launch of NaturalPagans.com – a blog aggregator collecting new blog posts from the popular blogs “A Sense of Natural Wonder”, “Atheopaganism”, Humanistic Paganism”, “Canadian Mutt”, and “The Allergic Pagan”! You no longer have to remember to check all these different blogs – here they all are on one site, which you can subscribe to as well.
Earth Day (April 22 this year) is a holy day for many Pagans. Here are some ways that we Pagans can celebrate Earth Day.
A gift of God May sear unready fingers ∞ = Δ Un cadeau de la Divinité brulerait des doigts qui ne sont pas prêts ou Un bienfait de la… Read more “Translating Book of the Living – an amateur experiment, verses 3 and 4”