What do atheists think of pagans and wiccans

[The Grand Nudger]

You're still drawn to pagan iconography and themes, but not pagan religion or worldviews, then?

[Silver]

You're still drawn to pagan iconography and themes, but not pagan religion or worldviews, then?

Pretty much, yes. Although when I wear the jewelry, a part of me still mentally connects with the belief system even though the rational part of me rejects it.

Ironically, as a christian, I never connected to the belief in that way.

[The Grand Nudger]

What still connects? My military service was jewelry, or a mask, or more accuratetly the face under the mask unadorned by jewelry, to me. The thing that the real pointed at.

[Silver]

What still connects?

I suppose it's simply the comfort it provides. Essentially, that is what connects one to a belief system.

Question for you, if you don't mind answering, in which way(s) do you find yourself associated with paganism?

[The Grand Nudger]

In every conceivable way. People ask me, I say I'm a pagan, people ask about me, other people say I'm a pagan. People expect me to have some nature centric take and I rarely disappoint.

You guys here know me through the things I'm against - but most people know me for what I'm for. Before there was AF (for me) there was witchvox. Before there was a push to neo-christian theocracy there was simply Other, to my mind, and I was in that bucket.

[Silver]

Is this path relatively new for you? What ultimately led you down the path?

[The Grand Nudger]

No, lol, I grew up this way. I spent a considerable amount of time in the cypress domes and hammocks idolizing my very own green man - and wanting to be him someday. The Wife herself is a sort of christopagan, though her father would spit on the ground if he heard her say as much, and she's only ever said as much once to me, when we first met. We do the wheel in this house, and the sabbats are bigger than christmas..which is a fuckin lift, for as many kids as we have and the pressure in rural america to conform to southern baptism.

How do you explain beltane to some bible thumpers kid in a way that still has said bible thumpers kid sleeping over - and your kids need friends, and don't understand differences of belief - expecially as a barrier to fun. Easy - call it easter!

[Silver]

Growing up there was a weeping willow in my grandparent's yard that I was particularly drawn to. My imagination was especially fruitful in that spot.

[arewethereyet]

I have a tattoo on my outer left thigh that is a crescent moon that looks like an old man. There are ten stars in the sky around it that's surrounded by sun rays. The old biker tattooist that did it asked if it was some pagan or Satanic shit when I brought the drawing in. Laughed, said no, and he went ahead and did it. You would think he'd seen a lot since he was located right outside a military base.

It really had nothing to do with either. I have sun/moon tattoos on the side of each thigh.

[Silver]

I've shared this here before, I think. My family was Roman Catholic, and only in my early childhood did we attend church. We stopped attending for a reason I never learned. Growing up, ours was a silent belief. It wasn't ever discussed, we didn't have talks or prayer sessions at home, we didn't read the bible, there was no ritual aspect to our belief system other than iconography on the walls in the form of pictures of Jesus.

The beginning of my path toward paganism was rather cliche, to be honest, as it was for many during the time period, I think. It involved the movie The Craft. As a result of the film, I went online at school and the local library to search for spells that could be performed. Involving my sister and friends at school, I formed a coven of sorts. It never really led anywhere. The interest just wasn't there for them as it was for me. At home I had my little altar, candles and the sort, and I memorized little spells that never really resulted to anything realistically.

Shortly after that was when I fell into the local Pentecostal pit. I've mentioned it before, don't feel like getting into it again, but it didn't last long.

In college, I did research into the works of Robert Green Ingersoll. Even after that, I returned to paganism via Cunningham's book and local pagan shops where I was drawn mainly to the jewelry.

I wore a goddess spiral pendant for the longest time, even after I decidedly became an atheist. My atheism was mainly built up and associated with online message boards, Bolt.com and eventually MySpace. I already considered myself an atheist when I joined this forum nearly ten years ago.