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Author Topic: Culture/Worldview and Deities  (Read 15194 times)

Juniperberry

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #60 on: July 29, 2011, 04:04:37 am »
Quote from: Dark Midnight;9165
Actually, have you thought that it just may be that you haven't explained your point well enough for other people to be completely clear?


Since others understood me, no, I haven't considered that it's only my problem.

Quote
But this is a debate and discussion board, therefore the idea is to not have to keep things short and sweet. If you just say something without proper explainations, don't be suprised when people keep focusing on the original comment.


Which would be fine, if we were discussing why it wasn't important to others and in which ways they disagreed with my post, instead of a disagreement on whether or not I was offensive. The thread isn't titled "Prove to Juniper that she said something offensive".

And, I'm sorry, but the mods have had a few days to monitor this thread and if I haven't been warned about anything yet, I can't imagine it was the biggest deal on earth.

*knocks on wood that I don't get mod'ed*
The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. [...] The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most.--Elon Musk

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," [Bill] Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don\'t understand why some people are not concerned."

Dark Midnight

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #61 on: July 29, 2011, 04:14:57 am »
Quote from: Juniperberry;9168
Since others understood me, no, I haven't considered that it's only my problem.


But it doesn't follow that everyone understood, does it?

[/quote]
Which would be fine, if we were discussing why it wasn't important to others and in which ways they disagreed with my post, instead of a disagreement on whether or not I was offensive. The thread isn't titled "Prove to Juniper that she said something offensive".

And, I'm sorry, but the mods have had a few days to monitor this thread and if I haven't been warned about anything yet, I can't imagine it was the biggest deal on earth.

*knocks on wood that I don't get mod'ed*[/QUOTE]

No it isn't, but that doesn't follow that someone might find what you have said to be offensive. It might not be a big deal to you, but to someone else it may be. If someone finds what you said to be offensive, then that is what they will focus on. That's just human nature.
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Juniperberry

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #62 on: July 29, 2011, 04:29:00 am »
Quote from: Dark Midnight;9170
But it doesn't follow that everyone understood, does it?



No, it doesn't. And here is what I've said:

I've admitted I could have spoken more clearly or been less general.

I've attempted to clarify my original statements.

I've told one poster who explained why it was personally offensive that I appreciated her offense and told her it was never my intent.

What I haven't agreed on is that it is over-all offensive, or that underneath it all, that the culture/worldview isn't important.


What else is expected here?
The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. [...] The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most.--Elon Musk

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," [Bill] Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don\'t understand why some people are not concerned."

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #63 on: July 29, 2011, 06:43:55 am »
Quote from: Melamphoros;8295
This thread was inspired by one of my "quietly watch while munching popcorn" threads.  How does culture and worldview relate to deities?  Is it required to have a particular worldview to fully understand a deity?  Is cultural context the only way to understand a deity or just the way the deity was worshiped in the past?  Can one worship or understand a deity without the original worshipers' culture/worldview?

Interesting topic. I suppose I will use my worldview then. To have others maybe understand it though I will need to explain a few things about myself first so things I am saying will make more sense.

My physical father in this life could be considered christian by some but likely not by all. He doesn't go to church because people say 'God is everywhere'. That made him ask, 'if god is everywhere and can hear us and see us- then why do we have to go to church?' I wonder how many Christians have really thought on that, because the christian faith DOES say that about their god. Also he uses 'do on to others as they would do on to you' - another thing said in the bible only not everyone would do on to you nice things XD he just does on to those people what they would do on to him. He is not really all that religious if at all and quite amusing. My great grandmother on my fathers side was half blackfoot Indian, so they still had held on to a few native things though very small amounts. My great grandmothers father used to be in the buffalo bills show and I own a family heirloom that is an original copy of the book 'The Wonderful Adventures of Paul Bunyan'. I would look in to the book for more details like the author but it is a very old antique and not something I will disturb.

My stepfather is Hawaiian but has massive brain damage. My physical mother is a mix of white people but her mother kidnapped her and her brother from my mothers father. My mothers mother was basically a con woman that that basically separated my mother from any family connection when it came to culture. My mother for many months though had been left at a Buddhist temple and she took in that religion and the culture that was seeped from it as a result. When she met a certain hansom man at Hawaii and married him she had to take in some of his culture so she could actually cook for him(yes food is part of culture). I live in california, and was born and raised in the town I live in. In this town there are christian churches everywhere and bibles are peddled out more often then drugs are in a drug den. These are the things I was raised under. I knew nothing of christian influences before I started going to school, not really. I knew I saw ghosts and things and that it wasn't out of the ordinary for my family. I would hear voices speak in the house too but that wasn't too strange either. It wasn't until I was older and in school did I slowly began to realize that these things where strange and not normal. It wasn't until high school until I started gaining a lot of past life memories back. Until then what I had gotten back hadn't been much, and it had usually repeated itself a lot. In high school though so much past life memories had gone at me in such a short time I ended up mumbling in a different language often and speaking in a thick accent whenever I forgot to be careful with how I spoke. Even when I was careful pieces of that accent would slip out(I actually still have to be careful with how I speak).

It was those past life memories that made me understand myself more and my views and beliefs more. It wasn't that lifetime that my beliefs came from. It exposed me to things I hadn't been to before but it wasn't where any of my beliefs had come from. This lifetime hadn't even been where all the hate for people I didn't understand came from or the strange irrational fears I didn't understand had come from. After I learned about my past lives it all made a lot more sense to me. I made more sense to me, perfect sense to me. Other people still had a hell of a time trying to figure me out though.

My view on gods really comes from my culture, my people, not a view I developed in this lifetime but rather regained. To me, 'Gods' are not things with permanent names of fixtures. They are merely spirits that change with time, if a spirit more suited for the 'god' role shows up, then they are that new 'God'. To me, a God is not immortal, nor are they speaking for the whole of a part of nature. If I want to try to speak to a part of nature I will try to do so, if I think I need to please it I will try to do so because that is the culture I came from. Nature speaks, the spirits speak, and different parts of lands and even objects all have spirits you need to pay some attention to and respect to an extent if you want to get along with them and so need to give thanks. So in my cultures view while there are things we have that could be views as deities if you took the 'deity' out of our culture and tried to worship them without even understanding that culture you would likely just connect to another spirit or tick that deity off.

I don't think you need to worship a deity in a culturally strict way but I do think learning about the culture they come from and other things associated with that deity will help you connect with that deity. They come from somewhere, they have roots. While I am sure if Deities exist they change just like any other thing that doesn't change their roots. Their nature culture doesn't change. I'm sure you could have a good relationship with them without studying a major lot about their native culture but I'm uncertain of how deep ones bond could be without knowing this... For instance if you want to get married, the person you are about to marry, you should know where they are from, what they believe in, and the culture they come from right? You should know the person in past and present so you can better appreciate the person you have fallen in love with. I think of it much like this example, that if you do not try to understand the past and present of that deity and what makes them whom you follow it's a lot harder to bring your bond to the 'wedding' level so to say.

I tried my best to make my view on this topic as clear as possible.. Sorry for making this post so long.

Quote from: Juniperberry;9171
No, it doesn't. And here is what I've said:

I've admitted I could have spoken more clearly or been less general.

I've attempted to clarify my original statements.

I've told one poster who explained why it was personally offensive that I appreciated her offense and told her it was never my intent.

What I haven't agreed on is that it is over-all offensive, or that underneath it all, that the culture/worldview isn't important.


What else is expected here?

I honestly find it amusing that people keep not looking at your clarifications. For some reason the comments that keep going towards you remind me of high school. I think it might be because instead of just accepting that you tried to clarify what you said and you like everyone else in the world has made a mistake at some point they just keep seeing the word offensive and pecking. This is just how I see it though after reading all the pages of this topic.

Nomad of Nowhere

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #64 on: July 29, 2011, 06:55:40 am »
Quote from: Melamphoros;8295
This thread was inspired by one of my "quietly watch while munching popcorn" threads.  How does culture and worldview relate to deities?  Is it required to have a particular worldview to fully understand a deity?  Is cultural context the only way to understand a deity or just the way the deity was worshiped in the past?  Can one worship or understand a deity without the original worshipers' culture/worldview?


 
 I think cultural context must be important to a certain degree. I'm not saying you have to have the exact same world-view, but it would seem strange to reject a culture's beliefs almost completely, but then single out their belief in a particular deity for an exception. Also, you should be able to justify why you're even using the same name for a deity ancient people did if what you're addressing is not the same kind of entity that ancient people originally applied it to. Why not just call it "personification of (blank)"? There need to be major points of similarity between the ancient view and your view in order to justify keeping the ancient name.

Quote from: Juniperberry;8828
Here are a few more examples of why I think you can't just say you're  done nd be done with whatever religion without exploring the worldview and culture.

When I first started as a pagan, I held onto the idea that the gods could see into my heart and soul. That I could silently talk to them and they could hear me. Now, this may be a truth for whoever and whatever religion- I'm not saying its only Christian or all christian, but for ME that was a Christian cross over. As a heathen I have to ask myself if Odin can hear my thoughts, if Odin is all-knowing and see into my soul. Whatever the answerbis, everyone deals with that differently and choses to throw out something or retain it. But I think it requires a look.

Another example is my bestbftiends death. I still struggle with not picturing his soul going up and out into heaven/the heavens, because that was a Christian concept I had. I still struggle with the concept that he can look down on me or hear me talking from 'up there'. I choose to adjust my worldview accordingly to match the framework of my gods.

Otherwise, I would be applying the gods to very subtle, very ingrained concepts of the world that would be influenced by the Christianity in my life. I would essentially, in my view, be 'christian' with pagan gods. Because I belief religion touches our lives in ways that extend past deity and literal Scripture.

Eta: in phone, sorry for weird typos. Too annoyed to go through and fix it :p

 
Of the many pagans who worship deities in a way that isn't in their cultural context, I wouldn't say they were actually Christian polytheists. However, I may be able to relate to what you said.  I do think that Christianity and monotheism in general is a partial influence on many pagans who are soft polytheists, or who see deities as facets of a greater whole. It's understandable that many would want to harmonize their beliefs more with the predominant theological view (monotheism). For some, it may just be because they like the idea of a single power which all faiths revolve around, but for some, it probably is largely that they are influenced by their culture.

Jenett

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #65 on: July 29, 2011, 08:13:02 am »
Quote from: Juniperberry;9163
Im guessing you meant comments?


Nope. I meant commitments.

And because you seem to have not gotten the point of my entire post, let me reframe. I was going back to the original topic of this thread: how our understanding of a deity's background and worldview shapes our interaction with them.

You have said that it's critical for you to understand those things, deeply, in detail. (At least, I think that's what you said, because you've said you disagree with me.)

I said it isn't for me - it's one factor, but as with the real human people I know, it's often not a direct part of our interactions, and where large parts of my background never come up, they do not know the details, etc. (And likewise, I don't know the details about theirs.)

I then included examples from people I have known extensively over a long period of time in face to face settings with wideranging conversations (having spent 8 years seeing my initiating HPS and HP 5-10 hours most weeks, for example), as well as people who've known me extensively over a long period of time in other settings.

(Online as well as offline - though you may have been thrown off by my mentioning HeartShadow being bemused by my age, she and I met in person last year after 10 years of ongoing online interaction.)

Quote
I don't consider anonymous people on the internet to be anything like a 'friend' relationship.


I am, I should note, more varied. I got to meet HeartShadow and Veggiewolf last spring, which was awesome. I've known Darkhawk since college, though our interactions in the last 12 years have been mostly online except for when I was in her area visiting.

And I'm waiting for someone to get in at the airport who started as a friend-of-a-friend interaction online, who's flying out to help me drive to my new home, and she and I will be meeting in person for the first time in a couple of hours. (We've talked regularly on the phone for the better part of 5 years, and have two dear mutual friends in common. And, incidentally, there's stuff I surprised her about last week, while talking about stuff that came up in the planning for this trip that she didn't know about me.)

[As you might guess by this, I think that when people online start interacting regularly over an extended period of time, they stop becoming anonymous people on the Internet, and something else happens. That takes a while, and it's important to remember that there's some stuff that you won't ever see online, and some stuff that works very differently in online settings. But that doesn't mean they're random strangers always, either.]

There are maybe four or five people in my life with whom I've discussed *all* the things on that list I gave you in my earlier post in substantial detail (such as details of my family background, effect of specific educational experiences, details about my interests as a child and teen, ongoing conversation about the effect of my father's death.)

There are a lot more people where we've talked about some of those things, but not all of them, many of whom I consider myself to have deep, meaningful, relationships that are very important to me.

And that's also parallel to my relationship to the Gods, to get this back on context: there's some stuff that comes up, and comes up quickly or often. And there's some stuff that just never rises out of the background. It's relevant - it shapes their outlook, their view, just as my background and experiences shape how I interact with the world. But the details aren't the critical part, and we don't spend time there unless it's actually relevant to something.

So. My question. With your *friends*, however you define that (if you don't consider anyone you meet online a friend, as opposed to an acquaintance, that's fine.)....

With your friends: how much do you need to know about their background, the details of their experiences outside the time you're with them, to know them, care about them, have a meaningful relationship with them?

Do you need to know the details of their background in a wide variety of ways (not just how they're behaving now, based on that, but things like childhood experiences that shaped them, details of educational experience and background, etc.) to interact deeply with them? Or is it, as I've described it is for me, a bit more flexible?

And how does that compare to what you expect to know about your Gods? Or how you interact with them? Or they with you?

Mine are pretty parallel: there's lots of stuff I don't know about my friends even close friends, and they don't know about me. But there's lots of stuff I don't know about my Gods, either. (In part, because that data just isn't available to me, beyond what they share: my primary deity relationships are with deities whose documentation in lore is minimal, as they're primarily English deities of water and land.)

You've said you do something different - but I'm trying to figure out what that is, in practice, and what's different for you between Gods and people (since people are the relationships all of us can use as a comparison.)

[I note here that I am in the day before a cross-country move. I expect to have 'Net access more or less throughout, at least briefly, but my responses may take a while. I'll be done moving on Tuesday, though, and if I miss responding to something, will try and snag it then.]
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Darkhawk

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #66 on: July 29, 2011, 08:18:35 am »
Quote from: Juniperberry;9171

What I haven't agreed on is that it is over-all offensive, or that underneath it all, that the culture/worldview isn't important.

What else is expected here?

 
Well, it would be nice if you acknowledged, perhaps in passing, that absolutely nobody in this thread ever said that "the culture/worldview isn't important".
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Juniperberry

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #67 on: July 29, 2011, 03:00:59 pm »
Quote from: Darkhawk;9209
Well, it would be nice if you acknowledged, perhaps in passing, that absolutely nobody in this thread ever said that "the culture/worldview isn't important".

 
That's easy to do, because I don't believe a single person in this thread had said that. :)

In this whole exchange, I'm focused on my comments as they are read by all of you. Nothing in my original post, or in any of my other posts, had anything to do with anyone else's opinion on the topic here. I've only responded about my opinion and why I feel that way, and people's opinion of my opinion.
The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. [...] The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most.--Elon Musk

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," [Bill] Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don\'t understand why some people are not concerned."

Juniperberry

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #68 on: July 29, 2011, 03:10:04 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;9208
Nope. I meant commitments.

And because you seem to have not gotten the point of my entire post, let me reframe. I was going back to the original topic of this thread: how our understanding of a deity's background and worldview shapes our interaction with them.
Ah, gotcha.

Quote
You have said that it's critical for you to understand those things, deeply, in detail. (At least, I think that's what you said, because you've said you disagree with me.)


I actually never read your post. Someone else mentioned that my ideas were 'wrong' and you're were 'right' so I just assumed that they must be different than mine and we were in disagreement.

Quote
I said it isn't for me - it's one factor, but as with the real human people I know, it's often not a direct part of our interactions, and where large parts of my background never come up, they do not know the details, etc. (And likewise, I don't know the details about theirs.)


Hmmm....I think (and by the way, I appreciate the discussion on the topic), that this might have to deal with how you see deity. Again, I don't see the relationship as personal as some people do, so I don't see examining a friend's background on the same level as examining a god's background. It's more like reading a biography on George Washington and seeing how his whole life played out for him to become the POTUS and examining his choices and influences and gaining inspiration. It also helps reading that, to see how law was shaped and influenced and how a national worldview was born.


Just FYI. I'm no longer addressing whether or not my post was offensive. Clearly it's a matter of perspective, and I will apoloize that it offended anyone in a way I didn't intend, but I won't apologize for the opinions I have about importance of worldview.  So, we're not going to get anywhere there, and the constant back and forth is turning me into an insulting person.
The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. [...] The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most.--Elon Musk

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," [Bill] Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don\'t understand why some people are not concerned."

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #69 on: July 29, 2011, 03:41:38 pm »
Quote from: Juniperberry;9270
Ah, gotcha.

Hmmm....I think (and by the way, I appreciate the discussion on the topic), that this might have to deal with how you see deity. Again, I don't see the relationship as personal as some people do, so I don't see examining a friend's background on the same level as examining a god's background. It's more like reading a biography on George Washington and seeing how his whole life played out for him to become the POTUS and examining his choices and influences and gaining inspiration. It also helps reading that, to see how law was shaped and influenced and how a national worldview was born.

 
I suspect it might also have to do with whether you consider deities simply friends that at most modify your existing world view (whether that be a traditional witchcraft cosmology or something else), or whether you consider the Gods coming first and thereby determining your cosmology full scale.

For example my world view is a mixture of my cultural cosmology aka western secularish and my personal cosmology aka mostly new ageish with a dash of western occultism and folklore and a degree in natural sciences. But having Gaia as my Matron severly diminishes the escapist ascencion ideas of new age, and puts my focus in existing here and now. This informs my view of the afterlife, it influences my personal ethos, etc, but my worship of Her did not create that ethos.

I did not go into paganism looking for a particular path (and I'm sure there are people who would claim I don't have one - there's more hacking through the underbrush than walking in a straight line), I went into it with my history and my instinctive beliefs - and the Gods came to me when I was where I was. So far none have demanded that I take on full hellenic or kemetic beliefs.

As for the whole 'x gods, x world view, x lifestyle'.. There is a completeness and purity about that view, that I find fascinating, but it also seems rather .. complicated, living in the society that I do. There is a communal feeling to sharing your world view with the people around you, and Cauldronville is not where I live. Nor do I live in ancient greece, ancient egypt or norway 10. century. I live in modern western europe, with that cultural heritage and development - through Christianity, Enlightenment, Romanticism, Industrial age, 2 world wars, massive oil finds and into Today.

And this is where Gods - no matter where they originated and in which culture they had originally - decided to kick my butt.
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Juniperberry

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Re: Culture/Worldview and Deities
« Reply #70 on: July 30, 2011, 01:59:36 pm »
Quote from: Stardancer;9285
I suspect it might also have to do with whether you consider deities simply friends that at most modify your existing world view (whether that be a traditional witchcraft cosmology or something else), or whether you consider the Gods coming first and thereby determining your cosmology full scale.


Yeah, that's a good point. Another difference between friends and gods is that friends aren't in charge of my world. I definitely see the gods as the powers behind what makes this world, this world. Friends only influence me on a small scale and understanding why they do what they do isn't as important. From my perspective.  



Quote
As for the whole 'x gods, x world view, x lifestyle'.. There is a completeness and purity about that view, that I find fascinating, but it also seems rather .. complicated, living in the society that I do. There is a communal feeling to sharing your world view with the people around you, and Cauldronville is not where I live. Nor do I live in ancient greece, ancient egypt or norway 10. century. I live in modern western europe, with that cultural heritage and development - through Christianity, Enlightenment, Romanticism, Industrial age, 2 world wars, massive oil finds and into Today.


Yes. A lot of people think that in reconstructing we're trying to recreate that culture. But it isn't the details that we want to bring back, it's the ultimate philosophy behind them.
The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. [...] The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most.--Elon Musk

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," [Bill] Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don\'t understand why some people are not concerned."

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