Atheist Pagans...

[staranashannon]

Atheist Pagans,
Please tell me about your beliefs. Do you believe in souls, spirits, ghosts, etc.? Perhaps you don't take gods and goddesses literally, but accept them as archetypes, or something else? I look forward to reading about your points of view.
~Love,
me

[shadowx]

I am an atheist, to me the gods and goddesses are nothing but imaginary creatures dreamt up by people.

But at the same time they can have power. I believe in pure energy, it has no form. It isnt bright, hot, loud, moving etc... it is nothing until we use it. Somehow we are able to pull this energy in, program it and send it out at a target. Now, if you were to light two candles and call one the god and one the goddess and believe that in each their respective energies are contained then what you would be doing (according to my own theories and beliefs) is pulling in some of this neutral "cold" energy and putting it into the god candle and giving it manly attributes, all the time thinking of your god and thus the energy is "filtered" or programmed to feel like your god. It isnt your god, it is nothing but cold, dead energy but it feels godly to you. Likewise for the goddess candle you take in this energy while thinking of female attributes and thus it feels like your goddess.

I do believe in spirits or souls since i think that is where magick happens. I dont think magick really exists here in the physical world. I think it exists in the spirit dimension and when performing magick we actually move the energy "up there" to our target's spirit which acts like a lightning rod giving the desired effect in the physical mind and eventually the body.

Ghosts are just us, we are a spirit, or a ghost within a body, like a puppeteer. When the bodies dies the soul or spirit is "freed" and becomes what we often call "ghosts".

thats the basics of what i think anyway!

[Kitty]

I definitely see the gods as archetypes, but also as a part of the self, so if someone was calling on Aphrodite, they would be calling to the part of their subconsious which deals with love
I find energy manipulation - such as controlling your electromagnetism - and potions and remedies most interesting.
I don't consider myself to be closed minded - I love hearing about the beliefs of others, but personally [and I often wish it weren't the case] I need to either experience something or for it to make sense to me logically before I can believe it fully.
xx

[staranashannon]

Very interesting, peeps. I believe the gods in mythology were the product of human imagination, but also their stories were meant to explain things in a way the human mind can understand. I also consider what someone once said that made me wonder: That "Just because something is imagined doesn't mean it isn't real."

I guess I would be an agnostic pagan, because I define atheism as not believing in a higher power. I don't believe, nor do I disbelieve, because I don't think "higher power" or "god" is the proper word for it. I call it the Divine, and to me, the symbol that best represents it is the Yin and Yang, for it's dualty; it's opposites existing together as one.

Shadowx, I have to ask, Do you consider yourself to be Pagan?

[JuniperBerry]

I read once that the one mistake the church made was in convincing pagans and heathens that their gods were superstitions. Logical thought has to take that to its ultimate conclusion: that God himself must be a superstition. Which is where we are today with science divorcing the spiritual, with gods becoming psychological inversion, with the microcosm and macrocosm meaning little else but forces of nature.

We're still products of Christianity, even as pagans.

[Traumwandlerin]

I don't consider myself an atheist, because many atheist I've met are really mean towards anyone who believes in Gods. I don't believe in Gods though, but rather, I just don't care about them. They are not part of my belief of the world, but I accept that Gods are a part of the world of others. I won't deny their existence, but they are not relevant for me.

I like taking Gods as a symbol, but they are not special as a symbol. Any mythical or real figure or anything I can think of is worthy and powerful as a symbol. I like the Archetypes. Archetypes do have a huge impact on my life. Also, I do believe in something one could call a spirit or ghosts or other entities, but again, I don't like name calling. I don't care what it's exactly, but rather how it feels and behave.

I believe magick is the using of energies.

[WhiteOne]

I believe that we use gods to focus our energy, and to communicate with, and to identify with, the unknown. Gods are often portrayed as humanoid creatures, and they seem to be a bridge between humanity and other forces, species, or objects. For example, Bastet is often represented as part human, part cat. Venus is a humanoid embodiment of the emotion of lust. Lesser creatures are also bridges like this. Mermaids are bridges between the ocean and humanity.
This allows us to not only identify with dissimilar parts of our world, but it also allows us to communicate with them.
Plus, I think gods like Jehovah are used as a sort of energy focus. Because gods are typically seen as more powerful and wise than humans, when we put our energy into a god we are empowering them, and also trying to guide our energy into the governance of a wisdom greater than our own. For example: I might cast a spell. Although it is my energy that is being channeled into the spell, and it is my will, I may choose to "employ" a god. If, for example, I call on some goddess of harmony, then even if my will has some unexpected disharmony in it, then I am surrendering my power to the goddess so that she will create harmony beyond the power of my conscious mind. This requires an embrace and surrender to the unknown.
In this way, a god might act as a safety precaution for a spell.
I just see religion as an institution that people created, which should work towards the betterment of all. I partly identify with pantheistic paganism, because I do believe everything is part of "god"--if their is a god then this is it.