abandon
December 31st, 2025
Ending the year on a hopelessly optimistic note. Happy New Year to all J&M readers!
Here’s that article
Latest book…
Random oldie…
August 31, 2011-
- NICE T-SHIRT (Thank you for not provoking my uncontrollable lust). Currently unavailable.
Thanks, Author, for a good year in ’25. Bring on 2026 . . . .
One of the reasons Christians choose Neopaganism is because it offers a lot of similar mysticism without the guilt trappings. Catholics, in particular, enjoy the comforts of ritual. A Wiccan once told me that she preferred ex-Catholics as converts because they appreciated ritual in a way that Protestants just didn’t get.
Is there a specific Neopaganism that would be worth a look just to know what’s going on? What I’m getting here is a varied assortment of every possible angle, minus the established religions. You can be atheist, you can be pumped full of woo-woo, you can be returning to your roots of millennia ago based on slender historical evidence, wear a hat with horns and be an asshole, whatever.
My sun worship concept is essentially pantheist, and there’s likely something useful somewhere in that jungle. (Pantheism, FYI, is practically identical to atheism.)
Oh, I so love this. I am all for High Anglo-Catholic ritual, the works: latin, incense, choirs, processions— I can believe in ritual, but I can’t believe in God
That sounds reasonable. I think the Latin might sound surprisingly different, though – there were some sun worship elements in the classic Roman era but not much since, so Latin of that era makes sense to me. Where Kaiser entered the German language from Latin Caesar.
Makes sense to worship the Sun, tis the real giver of life and once it turns into a red giant the destroyer of the inner solar system…
I’ve been an atheist pretty much my whole life (I’m a 62-yr-old American). The only exception was High School and a couple of years after. I had a large friend group who were very devoted Protestants, and I wanted to be part of their social circle. It turns out that 2 millennia of practice at evangelizing makes them pretty good at it. It was only in college, after the group split up, that I came to my senses.
Now, my line is, “I used to be a Baptist, but I got better. Now, I’m immune!”
Re: neopaganism. Back in the day, “Pagan” meant Greeks and Romans and their panoply of gods. In the decades since my brief excursion into belief, I’ve put together a trio of philosophies that serve me very well. I’d like to recommend them to you-all as well.
First, I started studying Buddhism. When it has historically spread to a new people and culture, it has adapted itself to fit, much like Christianity has done. e.g., Buddhism became Chan in China, then Zen in Japan. There are others. But in the 19th & 20th centuries as Buddhism spread into the West a version of it has developed that is agnostic, secular, and humanist. It’s worth a try; start with Stephen Batchelor.
I’m also a modern Skeptic (as opposed to the Greek Sceptics). The principles are: scientific literacy; epistemology and metacognition; media and sociological literacy; and intellectual humility. My gateway was “The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe.” There’s a long-running podcast and a very good handbook. One could also start with Carl Sagan’s “The Demon-Haunted World.” Or, hell, even just read or watch “The Pale Blue Dot.”
Finally, I’ve started to learn about the modern reconstruction of Stoicism. It is unfortunately trendy, but don’t let that put you off. “The Daily Stoic” and its companion journal are where I started. (By Ryan Holiday.)
Sorry for the long post. If you’ve read this far, thank you and I hope it was worthwhile.
When’s the next Jesus and MO book?
Good question, Hector. There’s more than enough material for another volume. I was thinking of publishing a “best of” book first though. I’ll probably by eliciting all-time-favourites from readers here and try to get the book out before spring. Thanks for reminding me.
Make sure it’s available before XMAS so I can gift it to my fellow travelers! Think about a box set of all prior published?
Hi, Jeff Fate. I have a somewhat parallel experience.
As a young teen I had to stay with Aunt & Uncle for a few weeks, fresh into a new school and with a boring tramfare, while parents went travelling. I brought an old family bible to read me to sleep. Hey, it worked! Don’t think I ever got through all five Mosaics. 🙂
Later, I foolishly opened the door to a couple of JW who really wanted to save my soul and littered the house with Watchtower pamphlets. Even went to one or two meetings in their Kingdom Hall before I confronted my old (80+) Bio teacher with their dogma, and he graciuously admitted me and efficiently debunked it.
So, I’m not entirely a Bible Virgin and therefore equipped with a bit of doubt.
In my mind, this education has actually served me well in life. One might say I am “luttrad” as we say it in Swedish 🙂 (as in “pulled through the oak lye”, or fire baptism)
In short: hallelujah brother.
The feature of being able to translate the text of the comic strip through Google makes the most of Google Translate.