Will heathendom (pagandom) bring freedom back to us?

What are non-pagan issues? Pretty much any system of belief is under assault, all the time. Hell, distraction and stress are creating signal to noise problems for any beliefs. Beyond that humans are now bombarded by a mixed, internally-contradictory mish mash of beliefs and paradigms. Anyone has to work to hold this off, unless one is a kind of cork on the waves, which a lot of people choose or are. But there is no reason, that I can think of why pagans are worse off in this mess.

Religion is certainly both a collective and a personal issue, but the collective side is more powerful and retroacts to each person, so that one doesn’t really know, whether one is religious because of personal or because of collective decisions, interests, motives and so on. I think most people don’t believe what they want to believe personally, but some do. Most people believe what the rulers want them to believe, and merely some people believe what they want themselves to believe.

So for the most part religion is political. De jure and de facto religious freedom is merely those people guaranteed who live in states with a judical and collective guarantee of religious freedom, protection of minorities. So if you want to be a heathen (again), you have to know whether your state, if you have one, does guarantee you your heathendom, your heathenish life. If you live in a Western state, then your heathendom, your heathenish life is guaranteed. If you live in a Non-Western state, then your heathendom, your heathenish life is not guaranteed.

Is there still (or again?) any heathenish state in the world like it was in ancient times, for example in the polities of the ancient Greece, the ancient Rome, the ancient Carthage and so on?

the only current ‘pagan’ state I can think of is the hindus of india. …but they wont use that term even though it simply refers to a belief in many gods, which they clearly have. on the other hand, it depends on what we classify as a state, there are over 80,000 druids worldwide [at least, ~ that’s just those who are part of an order]]. its a small state but I don’t see the difference, a state is pretty meaningless as culture transcends race and vice-versa.

India is also an example for the fact that the whole globe is influenced by the Western culture.

It struck me that this term ‘Western Culture’ has a real hodgedpodge of stuff stuffed into it.

Today the biggest impact is corporate culture. Corporations as they are today did come mainly out of the West. But it is hardly culture.

There are a lots of other things spreading from the West. VArious media products and services - which then you could argue are affecting the ids of the world.

Then there are the wonderful products of culture - which do occasionally crop up in those media. Great novels, music and so on. No need for these to replace other cultures’ arts/etc.

The word „culture“ has different meanings, and unfortunately the history of the English language elimintated some of this different meanings. Nowadays the word „culture“ merely means „education“ and the state allocation of „literature“ „music“, „theatre“, „science“ and so on, but not „literature“, „music“, „theatre“, „science“ on their own (by themselves!), and also not religion. In the German language the word „Kultur“ is used in both ways, so when I used the word „culture“ in my last post, I meant both (a) „education“ and the state allocation of „literature“ „music“, „theatre“, „science“ a.s.o., and (b) „literature“, „music“, „theatre“, „science“ on their own (by themselves!) and religion.

“Technoculture”.

Culture doesn’t just mean education. And it is not necessarily tied to the state. It also includes or at least can religion. But perhaps I am missing something you are saying above. Interestingly neither of the above definitions quite gets the way I hear Western Culture used. To me this tend to mean things like break down of sexual roles, capitalism, centrality of media and Entertainment -w ith a lot of sex and violence - gadgets,. the breakdown of the extended and even nuclear family, individualism, technological fixes, and then things like human rights, democracy and so on. (note I am neither dismissing or approving this way of categorising or even this way conceiving of Western Culture.)

But if you ask someone about the Culture of a country they visited, suddenly we are talking about food, dances, clothing, Music, language foibles and then sociological patterns including religion.

According to the definition of culture I prefer culture doesn’t have to be merely a national one, but it is a phenomenon that usually or mostly includes many nations / countries. For example the Western culture includes not all, but the most European nations. The borders between cultures are nearly always congruent with those of religions or confessions of religions.

Europe with its very old tradition is about to disappear because of the immigration (capture, the immigrants say!) of people who belong to foreign cultures (especially to the islamic culture). The Western culture will disappear because it has never been islamic (the islamic exceptions in the south-east of Europe have never been a part of the Western culture).

How do a heathen live his life?

How has he to live his life?

Cp. thou shalt or thou shalt not.

I don’t think Islam will in the long term withstand ‘Western’ Culture, just as Christianity and every other religion is falling to modernism, physicalism, capitalism, consumerism, ‘I am my surface’-ism, modularism, and then transhumanism which is the fart at the end of this indigestion. Not that I am rooting for Islam. In general we are supposed to choose between bullies with poor and damaging Weltanschauungen.

And what about the religion? Do we need a religion, and, if yes, which one in order to prevent that choice? Can heathendom help us thereby? Or is just the reverse true?

My two questions again:

How do a heathen live his life?

How has he to live his life?

Heathen is too broad a term. It more or less means, not Jewish/Christian and I suppose Islamic. So heathens lead all sorts of kinds of lives. I am not sure he has to live it in any particular way. Those heathens who might resist the current winning worldview also do this in a variety of ways.

That’s correct.

But not a monotheistic one, right?

Yes, but how exactly?

If only technically.

How should a heathen live to bring freedom back? (is that the question?)
It depends on what lines of causation one believes in. Which varies from heathen to heathen.

What’s your answer?

And if it’s earlier in the thread, just let me know where.

Instaed of “monotheistic” one could also and perhaps more correctly say “henotheistic”.

The question is more how they really live their life religiously!

Therefore my questions. I wonder why those members of this forum, who call themselves “heathens”, don’t answer my questions. I asked them repeatedly (for example here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here), especially Maia who calls herself “heathen”. … No answer!

You are no heathen, aren’t you?

A serious question: Is that really pagan or just femninistic, thus: politically correct?

Make what we will?

I think Christianity is probably a lot less burtal than ancient Greek religion for example. Not all ancient religions were nice. Some of it was worse.

Yes, of course, and therefore my questions (for example here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here), but they dare not to answer. Are they cowards? If yes, then they are no heathens, right?

Maybe you need to change how you ask your questions.
Some people, for example, find it easier to understand a wordy drawn out paragraph, while other people only need one sentence.

Some people think that life is like a lock and you only need one right key to fix it.
So they would say christianity is the key, or they’d even say paganism is the key.
I think the facts are that life needs a lot of keys and necessarily cannot be perfect.
That is a big issue for a christian, because his or her god is supposed to be perfect.
On the other hand, in polytheism the gods are not perfect, I think, with what little I’ve read.