![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2014\/06\/06-Agora.jpg\" "\\"Agora\\"")
<\/a>Even in its Big Tent form, Paganism is a distinctly minority religion.\u00a0 And that\u2019s OK \u2013 we\u2019re mostly happy staying under the radar.\u00a0 We have no divine mandate to convert the world to Paganism, and besides, we\u2019re growing as fast as our infrastructure of groups and teachers can manage.<\/p>\nStill, conversion is an issue with Pagans.\u00a0 Most of us have converted from some other religion, and there is constant pressure from the more vocal religions (some subtle, some not) to abandon our chosen path.<\/p>\n
Over on the Patheos Atheist Channel, Daniel Fincke has this post titled In Defense of Trying To Deconvert People<\/a>.\u00a0 His primary targets are Christians, but that\u2019s only because Christianity is still far and away the dominant religion in this country.\u00a0 Fincke unambiguously states:<\/p>\n I want to\u00a0deconvert\u00a0people. I am not like those atheists who insist that while they want to protect the separation\u00a0of\u00a0church and state, guarantee the integrity\u00a0of science education, or fight for social justice, they have\u00a0no<\/em>\u00a0problem with other people\u2019s private beliefs so long as they \u201churt no one.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He goes on to say such deconversion attempts should be done honestly and respectfully, but later in the essay he sounds rather like Christians who \u201clove\u201d us so much they scream we\u2019re going to hell if we don\u2019t believe exactly what they believe.<\/p>\n If we have good reasons to think that their beliefs about the most fundamental matters\u00a0of\u00a0existence and ethics are fundamentally askew, then we [have] not only the moral right but have a moral\u00a0duty<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0proactively\u00a0<\/em>counter them and advance our own positive alternative philosophical views.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m in agreement with the atheists Fincke says he\u2019s not like in the first quote \u2013 I want to protect religious freedom (the right to believe and practice according to your conscience, not the privilege to force your beliefs and practices on anyone else), science education and social justice.\u00a0 Beyond that, I\u2019m an enthusiastic participant in the marketplace of religions \u2013 I don\u2019t proselytize, but I do publicize.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found this path to be meaningful and helpful and if someone else feels called to it, I want them to be able to find the resources to help them along their way.<\/p>\n In the end, I\u2019m a polytheist who recognizes that different Gods call to different people and that what my Gods require of me may be totally different from what your Gods require of you.\u00a0 And if no Gods call to you, even to the extent you believe there are no Gods?\u00a0 To excerpt the Marcus Aurelius quote<\/a> I see on Facebook from time to time, \u201cLive a good life. If there are Gods and They are just, then They will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by.\u201d<\/p>\n While I have no need to convert anyone, there are plenty out there who want to convert me, either back to the fundamentalist Christianity I left so long ago or to the kind of atheism Daniel Fincke promotes.\u00a0 They want to convert you too.\u00a0 How should we respond to such conversion \/ deconversion attempts?\u00a0 I wrote this post<\/a> to specifically address fundamentalist proselytizing, but responding to atheist attempts requires a somewhat different approach.<\/p>\n Begin by understanding that responding at all is entirely optional.\u00a0 You have every right to say \u201cmy religion is a private matter and I prefer to not discuss it.\u201d\u00a0 If they persist, you can add \u201cand I especially prefer not to discuss it with someone who\u2019s being rude and aggressive.\u201d\u00a0 But where\u2019s the fun in that?\u00a0 Besides, if you can\u2019t rationally defend your beliefs and practices \u2013 to yourself if not to others \u2013 then perhaps you need to take a closer look at your religion.\u00a0 It was a pagan \u2013 Socrates \u2013 who said \u201cthe life which is unexamined is not worth living.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to defend my religion in the first person.\u00a0 Paganism has many varieties and variations and I couldn\u2019t speak for them all even if I tried.\u00a0 Remember that if someone starts hammering you about a practice you aren\u2019t familiar with \u2013 there is no Pagan orthodoxy to defend.\u00a0 All I can defend is my own particular expression of polytheistic Druidry.<\/p>\n I respect the limitations of science<\/strong>.\u00a0 I watched some of the new Cosmos<\/a><\/em> series and I appreciated Neil deGrasse Tyson talking over and over again about how there is much we don\u2019t know.\u00a0 For example, we\u2019re just beginning to delve into things like dark matter and dark energy that appear to be critical to the workings of the universe.\u00a0 Many of these things we will know some day as our knowledge base grows and our research tools improve.<\/p>\n But I suspect there are some things we will never know because they\u2019re beyond the capacity of our powerful but finite brains.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know how the universe came to be, we don\u2019t know why<\/em> it exists, and I don\u2019t think we ever will.<\/p>\n The absence of scientific knowledge leaves us free to wonder and speculate, but it does not leave us free to \u201cbelieve anything you want.\u201d\u00a0 In particular, it does not leave us free to assert that science \u201cproves\u201d metaphysical concepts are true.\u00a0 Bad science makes bad religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Religious experiences are real<\/strong>.\u00a0 My experience of Cernunnos is real.\u00a0 My experience of Unity is real.\u00a0 The helpful intuitions that come through divination are real.\u00a0 Successful magical workings are real.<\/p>\n People have had religious experiences \u2013 some like these, some different \u2013 for at least as long as we\u2019ve been human.\u00a0 This is my frustration with academic explanations that credit the origins of religion to the fear of death, the need to inspire self-sacrifice, and the desire to reinforce social norms and hierarchies.\u00a0 Those are all true, but they ignore the many many instances where humans have had a life-changing encounter with a God or a spirit.<\/p>\n Religious experiences are plainly real \u2013 the question is how we interpret them.<\/p>\n Interpretations that are at odds with known facts lack integrity \u2013 again, we are not free to believe anything we want.\u00a0 But outside of things we know<\/em> aren\u2019t possible, the best interpretations aren\u2019t the ones that most closely align with today\u2019s popular views (\u201cconsensus reality\u201d), they\u2019re the ones that are most meaningful and helpful to us<\/em>.<\/p>\n Interpreting my religious experiences in a polytheistic context has been very good for me, so I order my life as though that interpretation is completely true, even though I recognize I can never know for sure.<\/p>\n Life is short and hard<\/strong>.\u00a0 Science does an excellent job of telling us what<\/em> and how<\/em> but a very poor job of telling us why<\/em> and what it all means.\u00a0 Even for those of us who are privileged to live a (mostly) secure, (partially) healthy, middle class (for now) lifestyle, life is short and full of pain and frustration.\u00a0 My evolutionary urges are enough to keep me alive, but they are not enough to help me live a life that is happy and that helps build a better world.<\/p>\n Yes, you can rationalize away your religious impulses and experiences \u2013 but do you really want to?\u00a0 Do you want to reduce your love for your partner to brain chemistry?\u00a0 Do you want to reduce your love for your children to the evolutionary urge to spread your genes?<\/p>\n There is always the danger that religion can turn into opium, distracting us from this world.\u00a0 But honest religion<\/a> can help us examine our values and provide us with practices that help us live them out, even when life is hard.<\/p>\n The proof is in the living<\/strong>.\u00a0 Are my beliefs right?\u00a0 Are they true?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know \u2013 and neither does anyone else.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s what I do know.\u00a0 I could not honestly follow the fundamentalist religion of my childhood for reasons familiar to our atheist friends.\u00a0 I spent my young adult years professing a vague deism and living agnostically and I was miserable.\u00a0 Not all of that was due to my unsettled religion but much of it was.<\/p>\n<\/a>I respect science and the results of scientific inquiry<\/strong>.\u00a0 As a Nature centered Pagan<\/a> how could I do anything else?\u00a0 I love the natural world and so I want to know more about it.\u00a0 I learned a lot of science in my formal education and I\u2019ve supplemented it with a continuing education of reading, watching, and first-hand experiences.\u00a0 I\u2019m in complete agreement with atheists (and many Christians) that the age of the Earth and the development of life are better explained by astronomy, geology, and biology than by some ancient text.\u00a0 Though he speaks in a Christian context, I agree with evolutionary evangelist Michael Dowd<\/a> when he says \u201cfacts are God\u2019s native tongue.\u201d<\/p>\n