Random Spiritual Talk
Jan. 26th, 2010 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brightlotusmoonhttp://www.bloggersbase.com/spirituality-and-faith/pilot-of-caprica-polytheism-monotheism-bad-morality-of/
I am absolutely fascinated by the theologies of the SyFy show Caprica.
I personally have never felt "OMG persecuted" as a polytheist, but I have noticed that an overwhelming number of prominent monotheists I've watched or read have had something negative to say about polytheism. I swear I sense fear under their words.
The pilot episode of Caprica shows what happens when one religious extreme takes it too far. In a polytheistic society, a cult of monotheists detonates a bomb, killing hundreds if not thousands, probably establishing monotheism as the sort of thing that makes people lock their doors at night.
Any sort of fear-mongering religious practice is wildly upsetting. Pastors who insist that anyone who doesn't believe in a one true god will be condemned to eternal torture. Soldiers willing to kill populated areas because their commanders told them they would be rewarded by a higher power. It has always happened, it is happening right now, and it will always happen, because every fundamentalist believes that divinity is on his or her side even if that side involves violence, willful malevolence and maliciousness.
I hate when it becomes a game of "My god is better than your god." Seriously, people? Just have your beliefs and live happy.
Religious extremism is terrifying no matter which god is worshiped. Bottom line: Keep your deities. Don't talk shit about people who keep different deities. Don't forcefully proselytize unless you know damn well that the person you're preaching to wants to listen. Don't try to claim that your deity is the best deity, or the only deity, or the right deity. In the end, everyone will die and go to whatever afterlife they most believe in. This includes atheists and antitheists. Rotting in the ground and becoming physically part of the earth is probably a form of afterlife.
I'll always be a polytheist. I may not be devoted to any particular deity or pantheon right now, but I'm a hard polytheist. I was raised by an atheist mother and agnostic father who accept and respect my beliefs. We have very interesting philosophical conversations. I hope that eventually, everyone -- monotheists, polytheists, henotheists, pantheists, panentheists, kathenotheists, monolatrists, atheists, antitheists, agnostics, deists, spiritualists, animists, shamanists, etc etc -- will learn to get along and not try to kill each other over the idea that one general theism is better than another.
As Calvin once said, "I'm significant! ... screamed the dust speck."
I am absolutely fascinated by the theologies of the SyFy show Caprica.
I personally have never felt "OMG persecuted" as a polytheist, but I have noticed that an overwhelming number of prominent monotheists I've watched or read have had something negative to say about polytheism. I swear I sense fear under their words.
The pilot episode of Caprica shows what happens when one religious extreme takes it too far. In a polytheistic society, a cult of monotheists detonates a bomb, killing hundreds if not thousands, probably establishing monotheism as the sort of thing that makes people lock their doors at night.
Any sort of fear-mongering religious practice is wildly upsetting. Pastors who insist that anyone who doesn't believe in a one true god will be condemned to eternal torture. Soldiers willing to kill populated areas because their commanders told them they would be rewarded by a higher power. It has always happened, it is happening right now, and it will always happen, because every fundamentalist believes that divinity is on his or her side even if that side involves violence, willful malevolence and maliciousness.
I hate when it becomes a game of "My god is better than your god." Seriously, people? Just have your beliefs and live happy.
Religious extremism is terrifying no matter which god is worshiped. Bottom line: Keep your deities. Don't talk shit about people who keep different deities. Don't forcefully proselytize unless you know damn well that the person you're preaching to wants to listen. Don't try to claim that your deity is the best deity, or the only deity, or the right deity. In the end, everyone will die and go to whatever afterlife they most believe in. This includes atheists and antitheists. Rotting in the ground and becoming physically part of the earth is probably a form of afterlife.
I'll always be a polytheist. I may not be devoted to any particular deity or pantheon right now, but I'm a hard polytheist. I was raised by an atheist mother and agnostic father who accept and respect my beliefs. We have very interesting philosophical conversations. I hope that eventually, everyone -- monotheists, polytheists, henotheists, pantheists, panentheists, kathenotheists, monolatrists, atheists, antitheists, agnostics, deists, spiritualists, animists, shamanists, etc etc -- will learn to get along and not try to kill each other over the idea that one general theism is better than another.
As Calvin once said, "I'm significant! ... screamed the dust speck."
