Originally posted in response to a Christian who was rather butthurt about the questions being asked in the video below. If your response to some fundamental questions about your faith and your worldview, the kind of questions all of us, believers and not alike, should confront ourselves with about ourselves and our worldview regularly, is to lash out at the source of the questions and deny their validity, I would question why youre doing so. Perhaps you dont like the answers youve come up with? I happen to agree the last bit of the video is rather condescending to those of us who believe, but the questions throughout the rest of the video are no less worthy of contemplation for it. Faith shouldnt be blind. Faith is questioning and expanding your mind as opposed to listening to dogma presented by the institutions created by and for humankind. Is not the heart of faith in our own hearts? Are priests of any faith a magical sanctum of truth? Considering how religion has been used over the centuries and is used today I would suggest that being a priest is no more likely to make a man righteous than any other profession. For me, Im a believer, I dont practice the faith of my parents, or the faith my grandparents, or the most common spectrum of faiths in my country. I came to my faith because of its morality, its beliefs, and how we practice appealed to me and made sense to me. It fit me and how I lived my life in a way that Christianity did not. We lack perfect holy texts, indeed many of our faiths texts were destroyed by the wrath of Christians, and we can argue endlessly over translations, precedence and meaning on what certain parts of the Eddas and Havamal mean, though in the latter case it is rather plainly spoken. Our gods give us no orders, we receive no commandments from on high, just nine noble virtues and the challenge to live and die well with our honor intact. Or gods do not comfort us, nor are we at the center of a cosmic morality play. We do not supplicate them for aid, but instead live so they might look favorably on our courage, endurance and sacrifice no matter the odds against us. They do not call certain members of our species, or favor a select few but extend welcome to all who fight and die well. I have fought the enemy, and I expect, should I go to the shield halls of my ancestors when I die, to see them, and toast with them, for they too fought well. Nor does our faith conflict with the values of science and knowledge. Indeed our creation myth itself can be taken for a symbolic description of the big bang, starting with nothing followed by worlds of fire and ice raging against each other. (Fire being you know, the big explosion that kicked this whole thing off, ice being what we like to call outer space). As a species we have gained much, having walked and fought upon this earth, I do not see us as being much more than our ancestors though we have gained much in the way of abundance the world is still chaotic. There is a place for the gods and the old ways to shine light on the path forward in troubled and uncertain times... perhaps one day there will not be any more. Till then, seeing the bones of the giants in the mountains, even as I understand the geological process that put them there, or the serene beauty of nature, filled with wrights and spirits as well as the natural wonder of life itself does not detract from my wonder, but enhances it. As to people of other faiths... if there are gods, why can there not be more? The nine realms of Asgard might well not be the only realms and world spinning through the Cosmos and the varied dimensions that make up its depths. I dont have those answers, nor does my faith and what material we have left address those questions. This leaves it to us to understand and comprehend, and as a religion comprised mostly of individualists doesnt lend itself to much formal structure, I see like this. Live as you will. No ones going to hold your hand or lead you by the nose unless you let them... nor does it affect me. If I am wrong and your god casts me into your faiths hell for living with a questioning mind, a courageous heart and a calm spirit, then I doubt its a god Id want to believe in in the first place, but I will face their judgement, content that I followed my path with all I had. If that is enough to condemn a man, then so be it. I go with my head held high and my conscience clear. What about you kindred? How do you respond to these questions? How do they make you feel? What thoughts do they bring up? What about other gods? The Folk based Heathens regularly make the (albeit very flawed/wrong) argument that people of other backgrounds then Germanic and Scandinavian should worship their own cultures gods.Is that a tacit support for pluralism? -Seawolf
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 06:03:54 +0000
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