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Accept my beliefs.
By Morgan Akasha
An incident at
Pagan Pride Day made me stop and think about grateful I am
to be following a religion/belief structure that accepts everyone
despite their differences.
As most of you know, I set
up a stall at pagan pride day under the banner of "Brisbane's
Pagan Youth" just to put us on the map, show we are serious
about our beliefs and talk about how us younger members of
the pagan society go about our paganism influenced lives.
Whilst we were there, Sarah and I were approached by two young
American ladies who seemed to just want to know what we were
on about. Well, Sarah and I went about describing our beliefs
to the best of our ability and answered all of the questions
they fired at us. They seemed friendly enough.
I explained that my "god"
was not a separate power; it was the faceless genderless energy
that flows through the earth and everything that extends from
it, from animal to plant to element. That the energy of life
is my god and my goddess, it is both… like a Yin and Yang,
the energy is seen as masculine and feminine which come together
to make a whole. This earth shows its masculine "god"
aspects and its feminine "goddess" aspects - it
has balance. The joining of masculine and feminine has the
power to create. Mind you, this is just my personal point
of view and I don't speak for all pagans. Sarah added that
"in paganism, we can have as many gods and goddesses
as we choose, and they have strengths in different areas,
its all personal choice".
But this wasn't enough to satisfy
them, they wanted to know who I thought created things… like
as if something with a brain must be in control, so I explained
again. I said "I see this earth from the centre to the
edge of the universe as one big thing. Every plant and animal,
is just merely an extension of the body, like a mole on your
skin. The energy pumps through us all, the energy that pumps
through me, is the same that pumps through you. I believe
this because I see the earth and everything on it and the
air and ozone as one big thing; one big mass of particles…
outside of our ozone is nothingness, no particles… (Except
for space junk and random clumps of particles which can be
seen as the moon, asteroids, planets, other suns, etc. In
between there is nothing - a vacuum) therefore, nothing is
so much created, it just changes shape, manifests into different
bodies."
Again, not satisfied, they
wanted to know who then, did I think, created this earth?
I answered "I don't think anyone created this earth,
I think it was a reaction of chemicals and atoms that, with
a lot of energy, bonded and evolved into the earth and its
bodies". They then got narky and wanted to know where
the atoms came from… so I jokingly remarked, "All atoms
are sent from exploding stars, but I don't want to get into
the physics of that now"… ahhh school physics… thanks
for lining my brain with pointless general knowledge.
Disgruntled, they chose to
interrogate a different area of our belief structure. Next
they wanted to know what we thought about death. Sarah and
I continued that we believed in multiple lives, I said to
them "I have a personal believe (though this again doesn't
go for every pagan) that we live, then after death, our essence,
hangs around to see all those near and dear to us, grow and
live and die until we feel it is time to move on. We then
get reborn to a new life here on earth (or who knows… maybe
even to a life on another planet?!). " Once again… they
wanted to tear our beliefs to bits… they said, "Urgh,
This is a horrible place! Do you seriously believe that we
live and die just to be reborn in this dark negative place,
only to go through all this again?! There has to be something
better than this!"… I was horrified at that comment;
I mean… talk about a negative outlook on life!!! I sternly
replied, "This earth is a beautiful place!!! The cycles
of life are truly amazing, and complexity of a cell to a body,
to a birth, to a death, fills me with awe. We have so many
opportunities in life here on earth, we can go and do anything
we choose, and life is what we make it!"
At this point in time, I decided
to add in "As pagans, we don't ask for our situation
to be better, we ask for personal empowerment, inner strength
and courage to get through the situation." Sarah went
on, "Our deities don't fix things for us, they help us
to get up and do the tasks ourselves".
The ladies weren't convinced,
not that I was trying to convince them of anything. One lady
started asking "what are you looking for?", Sarah
responded "I don't know", I responded "nothing,
I'm not sure what you are talking about" the lady continued
"I have found Jesus, and he fills me with joy, he makes
me feel so amazing, I believe everything in the Bible from
cover to cover and his teachings fill me with joy. You are
still searching for him, but you will find him, because you
are good girls" I couldn't help but feel a little defensive
on the inside to that comment but I calmly continued "I'm
not searching for anything, I am quite comfortable with my
beliefs." Sarah added "Paganism is very excepting
of other religions, we believe in doing what feels right and
works for the individual person", I continued "Yeah,
I feel everyone has the choice to follow whatever religion
works best for them, because essentially, if it makes you
happy and is a positive influence to your life, then you should
stick with it. Christianity works well for you so, that's
what you choose to stick with, but Christianity doesn't work
for me. I feel as happy being a Pagan as you are being a Christian.
Paganism fills me with joy, it makes me feel the same way
as you do about your religion, that is why I choose it as
my path in life."
But…that lady didn't want to
except that, because well… Christians aren't taught to accept
other people's beliefs; they are taught that there is only
one way to god, and that you cannot experience happiness through
any other religion. Sure, there are quite a few rational Christians
around who are understanding, but most will choose to debate
- just like this lady. I didn't feel like debating the fact
that I feel happy practicing my religion, because I would
have just as much success with a brick wall so I ended that
dead end topic.
Before leaving they asked us
if they could pray for us, Sarah and I saw no harm in that
so we both said "yeah, sure", they then asked if
they could pray for us then and there… we looked at each other
and said "err… if you want". To which each lady
promptly stuck one hand on our shoulder and started a low
pitch repetitive chain of prayer which contained a lot of
"Jesus, she will find you, she is a good girl, she will
see the light" and so on lasting for about five minutes.
I didn't mind too much, because I know it could have been
much worse… Getting weird looks from the other pagans made
it a little embarrassing… and I know that… well… this is what
is to be expected from Christians… but I really wish people
could learn to accept that everyone doesn't have to follow
the same religion to lead a positive life. When humans learn
to accept each other despite of all our differences, we will
finally be set free. We don't question you about your beliefs…
so show us some respect and don't question ours.
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