Christian Theology vs. Pagan Theology

[ravinglunatic9461]

As I said in my introduction, I am wrestling my ex-Christian beliefs and my new Pagan mindset. As a former Catholic, I have had those thoughts burned into my memory. Has anyone else faced this issue? How did you solve it?

[sjellis]

I had trouble with that too. Teen Witch by Silver Ravenwolf really helped me. I don't know how old you are, but it really helped me. I grew up Methodist and my parents are very religious it was hard for me to separate myself from my family. But in the end I found out that I am the only one that matters in this quest for spirituality. Everyone else can believe what they want to. It honestly just takes a while. Do your research on both religions and see where you end up. I chose paganism because it just made more sense to me, silly as that sounds. It came naturally to me.

I really love Silver Ravenwolf's description of God.

I see God as a big, beautiful diamond with many facets. Each facet of God manifests as a positive religious belief. Witches see themselves as one of those facets on that diamond. Christianity, Judaism, Islam and hundreds of other positive religions make up that diamond too. Together we are all one.

It might help you understand that you aren't necessarily turning yourself away from God but seeing Him as more than the Trinity. Even the bible says God is infinite, so why does He have to be confined to just Christianity. Why can't God be male and female? Why can't Allah be the same as YHVH? Isn’t it just a name?

[Sercee]

I think of God as one of two things: the Earth itself (which is where the Lord and Lady fit in), or Tao. In Taoism, the creative force or "God" is the absence of form, the instant before existence. It is before the duality of gender and is the source of all form and function. In essence, it is Nothing (not as in zero because that would imply something). For example, think of a flower vase: What makes it useful? It isn't the clay that makes up the pot itself, it is the empty space within that gives it function. It's the emptiness, the void, that makes it special. So, in that light, God is the absence of everything... Interestingly, I just thought for the first time that according to that logic it's proof that God is dead! But that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Anyway, I'm not good at describing it, but the same idea is also described well in Qabbalah and by Aleister Crowler in the Book of Lies.

[theivytwines]

I understand the dilemma that you are facing. I was raised in a deeply Fundamentalist household.
Seriously, the thing that got me over the hump of Christian guilt was sitting and thinking honestly and openly about the tenets of Christianity.

1) I don't believe that God is a white man. I believe that God is what you make/him/her/them.

2) It wasn't God or the concept of it that turned me away.It was the so called Christians. I have no problem with God,we get along just fine. Its his followers that frighten me.

3) I couldn't get past the concept of Christian conversion. I cannot imagine anything ruder or more presumptuous than this. Who in the hell is someone to tell me that my life is so crappy, that i am going to go to hell, whatever that is, if I don't convert to their way of thinking.To my knowledge, no other religion has this tenet. In fact, most teach the exact opposite.


The thought that finally got to me was when I realized that I fully believed that if Christ were to return today the one thing I doubted he would be is Christian.