What’s in a Religion?
I think a great deal about religion, despite the fact that I don’t belong to an organized religion. Christians especially get the idea that if you’re not in Church that you’re missing out, or that you’re distancing yourself from “God” or that you’re off skating and sinning, or something. They love to say “I haven’t seen you in church lately” as though it’s an accusation of some kind. The hint is that you’ve been derelict in your duties.
It’s interesting that despite Jesus’ injunction to honor YHWH in private, Christians follow the advice of Paul instead and are all public and demonstrative. I guess we know who wears the pants in that family! But though there is nothing wrong with honoring your gods in groups, there is equally nothing wrong with doing so in private.
As we know, a great deal of Pagan worship was family-centered. You don’t have to be a priest or hold a priesthood to honor the gods. The women had their mysteries, and the men theirs. It’s all a part of honoring the divine. A Christian could sit at home and pray or read his Bible if he wanted. I don’t think he’d be less of a Christian for doing that instead of going to Church. But Church is more than a place to honor “God.” It’s designed to enforce doctrine, to make sure everybody is on the same page and part of a collective and that nobody strays into “heresy” which is really just thinking for yourself.
Without doctrine, if you’re just a “simple” polytheist, there is no possibility of heresy because there is nothing you’re required to believe. No doctrine, no dogma, no set of rules or laws. Sure, in the old days different shrines had different rules regarding how a god was to be worshiped, what you should wear, how you should purify yourself, etc, but this varied from place to place and god to god. It wasn’t something that you had to trouble yourself over on a daily basis, and especially not at home.
Religion, in my opinion, is all around us. It, like the mythical “force” of Star Wars, permeates our existence. We live in a world filled with the divine. It is all around us, in nature, in the ground, in the sky, in the flora and fauna of the natural world. It is in us. I can show devotion by going outside and touching a tree, or by leaving an offering from it, or by lighting incense on my altar indoors, or pouring a libation, or lifting my hands skyward and uttering a prayer. “Let it rain on the fields of the Athenians,” as Marcus Aurelius instructed us. A simple prayer, not of greed, but for the common good. I could also engage in magick, with a little ritual, but magick really stands outside religion, and not as part of it. Magick tends to be more self-oriented. Spells of love and wealth and so forth, or a concern for your own future manifested through Tarot, etc. The ancients understood this. They didn’t shun magick. They just knew it had its own realm of concerns. The realm of religion is to honor the gods. That, and that only.
So I added a statue of Thor to my altar recently. Does this make me more devout? No. The statue of Thor is a focus. A focus of my devotion. A way for me to honor a god. I could honor him in other ways, of course, and I do. This is just another way. That’s why people create statues of deities, after all. To honor them. It’s fine if you want to believe a spark of the god exists in the statue, or dwells in the shrine. Even the Jews thought this of their holy of holies. And why not, if the divine is around us and inside us? It does no harm to clean your statue with devotion, as the ancients once cleaned, oiled, and dressed the statues in the great temples. Again, it’s part of religion.
I don’t have to believe any particular thing as I go about my various devotions. I ask Thor to hallow my meal. I don’t thank him for providing it. He didn’t. I don’t have to worry about what I think as I do this. Thor exists and he is owed my devotion. It’s that simple. I don’t have to worry about sinning in my heart as I sit in a church pew, or about whether or not I’m sinning by not believing every word the pastor says or every word I read in the Bible in my lap. I don’t have to worry about some divine set of laws or rules that might, at any moment, send me spiraling down into the embrace of Satan if I misstep. That is a religion gone ugly. A religion used to beat people over the head or to instill obedience through fear of divine wrath.
But my gods are benign, and nature is at worst, neutral, which is exactly what you’d expect it to be. It is what it is. Just as I am what I am and the gods are what they are. Life is really simple if you don’t go out of your way to complicate it. Religion should be simple too. Why let fear and anger and doubt color something that should be beautiful? Honor the gods, honor the divine around you, and the divine within each of us. Keep it simple and you can wear religion rather than chasing after it.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson is the author of A Heathen’s Day, which since 2005 has addressed the life and thoughts of a modern day Heathen. He maintains a second blog, Digital Gods (www.digital-gods.com) which focuses on polytheism for the digital age. He is also the founder of the Mos Maiorum Foundation (www.mosmaiorum.org) which is dedicated to the study and support of Paganism as ethnic religion. 
“Thor exists and he is owed my devotion.”
I’m curious, why are gods “owed” anything from us? If he didn’t provide your meal, what does he do that requires reciprocity on your part? And too, how do you know Thor does certain things? Is it belief or knowing that he does? How would you classify those things?
For example, a person may believe a god or goddess provides X. But a person knows the sun is necessary to grow crops for processing into food. If I knew a deity or group of deities was responsible for the sun’s existence and therefore it’s power to grow crops, I would thank them. But since I don’t know that (or believe it) I just honor the sun as simply the object that it is, no divine name or function at all. Do you know what I mean? Any thoughts?
No offense intended, Granamyr, for I respect your beliefs, but permit me to say I’m not used to having this sort of conversation with you.
We owe devotion to the gods in the same way a renter owes rent to the landlord. The gods are our landlords.
Obviously, if you are assuming no gods exist then you won’t agree with me (which seems to be the case).
I am just curious about the reasons why people believe they owe their gods anything. In a sense then, are you saying the gods “own” our Universe? If that is the case then yes, I would disagree since A. Which gods? All of them own it? and B. That doesn’t make much sense because of incompatible claims amongst religions and their gods. You can’t all be right about “ownership” of the Universe.
I live my life as if no gods existed yes, just like I live like there is no Santa Claus. But, my own position as an Atheist is, “I don’t have any beliefs in gods.” That could change with evidence and with further learning and study which I am always striving to do and be open to.
And I respect your right to believe what you wish too. But like your disagreements with Christianity, that doesn’t mean your views will make sense to me. No offense taken. Why would there be? (:
Gran, like I said in my other post, it’s strange to be having a conversation like this with you, who within recent memory, was a Pagan.
That said, I think it would be ridiculous to claim that we owe the gods nothing. If they owed us, or if we were “square” then they would not be gods. If gods exist, we owe them. They are beneficent, even helpful, and I believe like the Pagans of old that the gods can act upon the human stage, and can intervene in human affairs.
I obviously don’t expect an atheist to agree. I’ve heard it all from the Richard Dawkins forums. Like my logic for them, their logic fails to impress me.
Well, even as Pagan, I had issues with things.
But yes, your explanation does not make sense to me. Firstly, because it assumes gods exist. Secondly, that we owe them. But neither of these has really been demonstrated by any religious party. What do they do, exactly, that we owe them for? Creation? I want proof they did it. Boons, favors and blessings? Same.
Assuming gods exist and that they do things, as I’m sure you’ve heard/read before, isn’t evidence that such is so even if we didn’t have loads of non-theistic explanations for the origins of life and the Universe.
But this whole “owing” business just sounds too like some Christian arguments. They say we “owe” Jesus worship, adoration and praise for saving us, creating us etc… Yet, as a Pagan, you feel no obligation toward Jesus Christ or his god for this gratuitous and seemingly unselfish act. Why then any other gods? Are all the gods that exist responsible for creation? Do we then owe *all* of them equally? That would seem incompatible with all the various religious claims and stories.
Gran,
As I told the folks at the Dawkins forum, it all comes down to “you can’t prove the gods exist so they don’t” vs. “you can’t prove the gods don’t exist, so they do.” Nothing can be proven either way and though atheists feel like the burden of proof is on me, I don’t see why that should be. My response is, prove they don’t.
As for the owing, that’s ancient Paganism, from thousands of years before Christianity. Has nothing to do with Christianity and if it sounds Christian to you its simply because Christianity “borrowed” the idea from Paganism (but then again, ALL of Christianity is “borrowed”).
As for who I owe, I owe my gods. No others. They’re not mine. They exist, but they’re not mine.
“Nothing can be proven either way and though atheists feel like the burden of proof is on me, I don’t see why that should be. My response is, prove they don’t.”
This is a huge fallacy, Hrafnkell. (Shifting the burden of proof) In a sense, you’re making a statement that we are supposed to pay the gods their due yet you’re asking me to prove I don’t have to? No way. If someone says I owe them 20 bucks I want to see proof of such a claim. Any court would require that person to prove I owe them money not require me to prove I don’t! That’s back butt wards.
As it is, we’re not in court. Heathens aren’t blowing their mead up my nose so it’s not a huge deal But…you are essentially making the same claim as Christians…that I owe God (or in your case the gods) but then not providing sufficient evidence for why. No Atheist cares if you think so. We do care when things are said of us because we don’t agree.
I disagree, Gran. You’re saying we don’t have to pay the gods their dues without proving they don’t exist. It goes both ways, this shifting.
The difference is, I don’t push it on anyone. I’m not saying you do personally, but there are many atheists out there who are just as dogmatic and aggressive as Christians. My gods exist. I honor them. If others chose not to, that’s fine. It’s their business.
So no, I don’t think I’m making the same claim as Christians. Not at all. From where I sit, it is the atheists who sound like Christians. They both say my gods don’t exist, and one dogmatically insists god exists while the other dogmatically insists “he” doesn’t and neither one of them can prove a thing.
The difference is, I’m talking for me, not for everyone. I don’t go around telling people they have to honor the gods. You asked. I said what I think. That’s quite a bit different from the picture you’re creating out of my words. I’m not preaching; I’m answering.
Hey there,
I came here via Migdalith’s recommendation and I must say, she is right, we are quite on the same page about religion. And I must say I am glad to read that other people than Mig and me see it that way
Since I am more into seeing deities as forms of energy and not impersonated, I may leave you with a heartfelt “May the force be with you!”
Bright Blessings,
Avarra
Avarra, thanks for commenting. As far as what form the gods take, that’s one discussion I’ll never participate in because I don’t think it’s one our ancestors ever had. That’s the sort of debate Christians love and they’re welcome to it! So however you see the gods, welcome and well met, and I hope you won’t be a stranger.