#nontheist

[hellbourne-house]

"the darkness is leaking from the cracks. I cannot contain it. I cannot contain my life."

~Sylvia Plath~

[indecisive-and-gay]

why are there so many “thank the lord today if you haven’t” and “jesus loves you” posts under the atheist tag? i just want to see what other atheists are up to on here that’s why i’m under the ATHEIST tag. kind of a rude conversion tactic if you ask me

[booksandwitchery]

Part III: Initial Assumptions About Witchcraft

It has always been hard to reconcile my rational, science-loving self with the part that loves feeling witchy and connected to nature. At least, until now. There was a certain section of Sane Occultism that triggered quite an epiphany:

“The effect of a talisman is not upon external fate, but upon the internal reactions of the consciousness.” Essentially, we do not affect fate by our magical operations, we affect ourselves. Additionally, Fortune eloquently writes that “the uninitiated believe that the force invoked comes into physical manifestation through the symbolic object, but the initiated know that the material object is not employed to enable the power to come down, but to enable the mind of the magician to go up along a particular line of consciousness.”

So--what does this mean? It means that pop culture has steered us completely wrong about witches, witchcraft, and magic in general. Witches don’t believe, for example, that a spell triggers a supernatural force that creates magic; rather, a spell is the combination of visualization, meditation and ritual that has many psychological benefits and helps people to achieve their intentions. The “magic” that both Wiccans and secular witches utilize...it works because these acts are meditative practices--they are a ritualized visualization of one’s goals, the benefits of which are proven and acknowledged by the scientific community. See this article from Daytona State University, for example, or this TED Talk.

Obviously, my mind was blown. This whole time, “magic” has been real, witches have been real, and I have possessed the capacity to utilize this type of practice to better myself and achieve my goals. But I had to dig deeper and be sure that this definition of magic was representative of witchcraft. So I kept on reading. 

[homebrewpodcast]

Question for nontheist, atheist, and naturalist pagans!

What does a pagan practice look like for you? And why choose pagan practices over other ritual practices?

There's been some recent talk in Kemetic tumblr (specifically from @inthemarshes ) about how a Kemetic framework might support an agnostic practice but ultimately cant support a nontheist practice. The gods seem to be too far integrated into even the descriptions of its values.

That's not the case for evey pagan framework though - nontheist and even atheist or naturalist pagans exist! Ya'll are few and far between and often drowned out by the many many polytheists that camp out on tumblr.

But if you're willing, would you share why you've chosen to use pagan rituals as opposed to any others? Does any element of the supernatural (ie nonphysical entities, magic, the law of attraction etc) have a place in your worldview?

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(questions from the wandering mind of johna)

[autumn-witching]

Embracing Satan

I’m really excited to say I’ve connected with a local Satanic organization and I’m really looking forward to being a part of the community and hopefully a part of the activism as well.

[spiritroots]

Hi! I'm an atheist black witch that's not comfortable doing spirit work at all. I know that as a black person, hoodoo is my birthright. But would it be appropriate for me to practice hoodoo as an atheist? Like, for example, to use graveyard dirt in a spell while thinking "my ancestors did this when they were alive and it worked. i want to follow them" instead of believing that they're on the other side helping me? I know hoodoo has ATR elements in it. I don't wanna be disrespectful.

also since i didn’t have enough space: i called myself an atheist cause it summed me up better. i believe that gods are real to other people but i don’t want to involve them in my life or my practice. so like an agnostic secular witch. if that affects your answer. I know that i can involve my blackness in magic without doing hoodoo, but i mostly would like some closure on whether this path is open to me or not.

Well as you said, because you’re black, hoodoo is your birthright so it’s definitely open to you regardless of your beliefs. No one has the right to tell you that you can’t practice it. Keeping that in mind, since you asked for my opinion and I totally understand your concerns I’ll share my thoughts…

It’s common for people to conflate ATRs with hoodoo, and while they are absolutely related to each other, they are also fundamentally different. Hoodoo is a magic tradition and not a religion, so there aren’t inherently any deities involved in hoodoo. As you mentioned, its original roots are in African traditional religions, but for centuries hoodoo evolved and grew mostly in black churches during and after slavery. The majority of traditional rootworkers today are Southern Protestants who involve the Bible, Christianity, Jesus, and the Christian God very heavily in their hoodoo. So the ways in which various religions have been involved with hoodoo have changed and evolved over time. You don’t have to include any deities or religion into your rootwork - although there will always be many influences from various religions  in hoodoo (ATRs, Christianity, Judaism, and more). 

You may find the term nontheistic helpful btw! A nontheist is someone who doesn’t necessarily believe in or not believe in deities - either way, deities just aren’t a part of their practices or beliefs. For example, Buddhism is commonly thought of as atheistic, but really it’s nontheistic because interacting with or worshipping deities is not inherently a core part of the religion - it’s included in some branches but not others.

~ See below the read more line, clipped it because this is a long answer ~

[ Ask me anything ] [ Buy me a coffee ] [ Spirit Roots Shop ] [ About Me ]

So I hope it’s very clear now that you absolutely do not need to work with any deities or any particular religion to practice hoodoo. However, spirits, in general, are a totally different story. There’s just no getting around the fact that spirit work is a core aspect of hoodoo. Yes, you could absolutely use hoodoo techniques in your magic (it wouldn’t at all be appropriative for you to do that), and it would be meaningful to think about the ancestral traditions aspect. But to really engage with and do rootwork, you have to actually work with and engage with nature spirits and ancestral spirits. There’s just no way around that IMO.

The only possible saving grace here, I think, might be an adjustment in how you think about working with nature and ancestral spirits. IMO it’s about the nature of the actual connections you have to nature and your ancestors through the rootwork, not the nature of your particular beliefs about them. It doesn’t really have to involve beliefs in supernatural spirits if that’s the aspect of it that bothers you. 

You don’t need to have any beliefs in “spirits” of plants, herbs, trees, etc. to know that all plant species scientifically are known to have different properties and uses for herbalism and healing in various ways. You can still deeply connect with the energies and “personalities” of them without imagining them having actual “spirits” in whatever way you maybe don’t like about that thought of it. I hope this makes sense? The same idea can be applied to ancestors.

You don’t need to believe that your ancestors’ still have some consciousness floating around in a magical alternate dimension to know that your ancestors live through you in your DNA. Make an altar for them and think of it like visiting a grave to honor and respect their memory and the aspects of them that live on in you. Use graveyard dirt and think of their essence being in there no differently than how their essence is physically contained in your DNA. I believe you can take it to a super literal, non-supernatural level and still engage with it all in a very meaningful way that is still doing the “work” of the rootwork. 

However… if it’s not just the paranormal/supernatural aspect and the aspect of spirit work that makes you not want to involve them is more about wanting to do magic solely on your own rather than have any reliance or dependence on others… then tbh I’d say rootwork probably just isn’t your style at all more than anything else. In all its stages of evolution from a mish-mash of ATRs to the practice it is today, rootwork has always been about a sense of collective power in the earth and in one’s ancestors beyond just oneself. I do think having an openness to that and an appreciation for that is essential. Hoodoo isn’t a solo pursuit, it’s about connecting into a powerful spiritual network, digging deep down into the roots - the herbal roots, and your ancestral roots.

[skepticraven]

15 Reasons Not To Be a Christian

It's sad that this has to be said but it does because unfortunately, too many people take disagreement as hostility. At least if its an atheist who is doing the disagreement. I do not hate Christians. I don’t think they are all bad people. I harbor no ill will towards them. I just happen to think they are wrong. I get asked why I’m not a Christian a lot so I thought I’d answer the question. I could probably write a small novel on this but this seems like a good start for now. 

1) The concept of Christianity is entirely based on the Bible. We have no original manuscript for it so you have no idea what it said originally. The oldest version we have of the Bible isn’t even in the language that would have been spoken in that part of the middle east and in that time period. 

2) The Bible was supposedly written by a lot of carpenters, shepherds, farmers, fishermen, and similar types of professions. Such people would have been totally illiterate during that time period.

3) Based on the date that the original Bible was supposedly written, the Book spent over a 1000 years being copied, translated, and intentionally altered by hand until the printing press came about in the mid-1400's. You couldn't copy it once without making some error accidentally and it was handled entirely by powerful men with plenty of reason to alter it for personal gain. Churchgoers were often illiterate until the past couple hundred years and mass was given in Latin on top of it back then. So most people would be none the wiser if something had been altered. In fact, we know for sure the Bible has been intentionally altered numerous times. There are literally hundreds of versions of the Bible just in English and thousands of sects of Christianity. 50+ Books were either left out of the Bible or later excluded (some were excluded by Martin Luther and some by Pope Clement VIII). If Christians can’t even get their story straight, why in the hell should I believe it? 

4) The Bible plagiarized stories from numerous pre-existing religions: both monotheistic and polytheistic. For example, the Persian scriptures of the Zoroastrians tell the story of how their god created the world and the first 2 humans in 6 days and then rested on the 7th. The names of these two human beings. Sound familiar? The Zoroastrians also invented the concept of heaven and hell and their art portrays the prophet Zarathustra as being surrounded by the same halo of light in which Christian figures are often depicted. Zarathustra even looks like Jesus before they white-washed Jesus. Chapter 125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead is the same as the 10 commandments only written in negative confession. The story of the great flood was stolen from The Epic of Gilgamesh- right down to using birds to find dry land and the fact that the boat landed on a mountain.

5) I find it morally contemptible that the Biblically conceived God supposedly gives you enough free will to hang yourself with so that is not really free at all. Love him or burn forever? They'd call that abuse if he were human. And if Christianity is so true, why must they drill it into the heads of children before they have the capacity for critical thought? Its easier to get people to accept extraordinary claims as children. That's just brainwashing 101.

6) I find it morally contemptible that the Biblically conceived God supposedly committed an act of genocide against all firstborn Egyptian sons because he was mad at one guy (the Pharaoh). The whole point of the Pharaoh is that he alone controlled Egypt and why could this God character have not just unilaterally eliminated him with a bolt of lightning? Instead, Christians believe he murdered a bunch of random people and children who had nothing to do with the decision to keep or free the Jews. But then again, Christians also believe this God murdered the entire fucking world in a flood because our "free" will became a pain in the ass. Not just people but also animals. I guess those giraffes were really acting up!

7) The Bible has dozens of current versions and resulted in hundreds of sects of Christianity with wildly varying beliefs. So if they can't agree on what it says, why should anyone else believe it?

8) Most Christians believe in the Christian god because they were born in a country where Christianity is the dominant religion. Most people in India are Hindu because they were born into it too. And the same with Muslims in Iraq. And so on and so forth. If there was any divine truth to Christianity over any other faith, why don’t we see more conversion? Why aren’t non-Christians flocking in? Because it sounds absurd to anyone who hasn’t had this stuff drilled into their heads for their entire life.

9)If you read the Bible, there is actually some pretty sick shit in it besides just the aforementioned genocide. The whole idea of the Bible is that it is supposed to be the divinely inspired word of god. I don’t know why God couldn’t just write his own book but supposedly he told his prophets what he wanted to be written. So if that is true, God is not an entity deserving of my praise or respect. Here are examples of this contemptible god character condoning sexual slavery:   In Numbers 31:17-18, Moses commands his people to kill the men, the children, and any women who aren't virgins. Then tells his people that they may KEEP any woman or girl who is a virgin for themselves. Then in, (Deuteronomy 21:10-14) Moses spells out a ritual to purify a captive virgin before sex. Then in (Leviticus 19:20-22), The Bible tells you that if you bang a slave while engaged to another woman, that you must beat the slave girl and sacrifice a sheep.

10) Either the Bible is bullshit or god sanctions sexism repeatedly. For example: 1 Timothy 2:12, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent." 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.” Colossians 3:18: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." Deuteronomy 22:20-21 "If however the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death…” Leviticus 15:19-30 I’m paraphrasing here but it basically says, menstruating women are unclean. Anyone or anything that touches she is unclean.

11) This God character in the Bible also sanctions physical slavery many, many times, not just sexual slavery. Here are a few examples: Ephesians 6:5, "Slaves obey your earthly masters with deep fear and respect." Colossians 3:22: "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord."

12) Either the Bible is bullshit or the God character in the Bible sanctions murder many, many times.:   (Numbers 16:41-49) In this verse, the Israelites complain that God is killing too many of them. So, God sends a plague that kills 14,000 more of them. (Deuteronomy 17:12) says to kill people who don't listen to priests (Exodus 22:17) Kill witches. (Leviticus 20:13)Kill gays. (Leviticus 20:27) Kill Fortunetellers. (Exodus 21:15) Kill someone who hit a parent. (Proverbs 20:20) and (Leviticus 20:9) Kill people for cursing their parents. (Leviticus 20:10) Kill adulterers (Leviticus 21:9) Kill a priest’s daughter who has sex. (Exodus 22:19) & (Numbers 25:1-9) Kill people of other religions. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13) Kill Nonbelievers (Deuteronomy 13:13-19) Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God (Deuteronomy 22:20-21) Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night (Leviticus 24:10-16) Kill Blasphemers (Exodus 31:12-15) Kill people who work on the Sabbath (Isaiah 14:21) & (Leviticus 26:21-22) Kill the children of Sinners That’s not even a complete list and it leaves essentially no one alive.

13) God is supposed to be this big divine being who created an entire universe full of billions upon billions of planets and stars. And yet the Bible claims he cares an awful lot about incredibly petty, stupid human things. Here are a few of his downright stupid rules. Don't get a tattoo or a piercing. (Leviticus 19:28) Don't eat Shellfish. (Leviticus 11:10) Don't cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. (Leviticus 19:27) Don't get divorced. (Luke 16:18) Don't wear cloth of blended fabrics. (Leviticus 19:19) Don't eat pork. (Leviticus 11:8) Don't work on Sundays. (31:14-15) Don't have pre-marital sex. (Deuteronomy 22: 20-21) 

14) The Bible contradicts itself all over the place. If the Bible doesn't have any consistency, why would anyone believe it? Again, there are way more examples than I can list here. STATEMENT 1: Genesis 1:26-27 Adam and Eve were created at the same time. CONTRADICTION 1: Genesis 2:7 and 2:21-22 Adam was created first, woman sometime later. STATEMENT 2: Genesis 1:24-27 Animals were created before Adam. CONTRADICTION 2: Genesis 2:7 and 2:19 Animals were created after Adam. STATEMENT 3: Genesis 1:31 God was pleased with his creation. CONTRADICTION 3: Genesis 6:5-6 God was not pleased with his creation. STATEMENT 4: Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill." CONTRADICTION 4: Look back at #12. I listed a bunch of people the Bible says to kill STATEMENT 5: Genesis 6:19 "And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark." CONTRADICTION 5: Genesis 7:2 "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens: and of beasts that are not clean by two.

15) There is simply is no evidence for any god, much less the Christian god.  In fact, there is some scientific evidence that debunks biblical stories. Here are a few examples. Darwinian evolution debunks the idea that animals or people were created as they are today. We have archeological evidence of human beings existing long before humans were supposedly created according to the Bible. There is no geologic evidence of a worldwide flood. And even in theory, how did kangaroos get to this ark from Australia? Fly? Millions of species couldn’t have gotten to the ark if they tried. There are an estimated 6.5 million land animal species. That's just land animals. If all this flood water was salt water, it would have killed all the freshwater animals (or vice versa) so Noah would have had to include either all saltwater or all freshwater animals as well. And some species need shallow water to survive so that becomes a problem with a flood that reached the tops of mountains. There is no fucking way all those animals fit on any boat, much less one with the dimensions described in the Bible. Besides, there just is not enough water around to account for the water levels rising above the highest mountaintop. Then Noah supposedly lived to be 950? lol. Come on. People had significantly shorter lifespans in ancient times than they do today for obvious reasons. Only 0.0173% of Americans live to be 100 with the benefits of modern medicine and sanitation. 

Conclusion: I reject Christianity because it does not make sense to me. It's not a phase. It's not teenage rebellion that has stretched into adulthood. It’s definitely not devil worship since I don’t believe in him either. This is just the conclusion I came to after careful contemplation. Nothing more. Nothing less. Hopefully, this was food for thought for someone. As always, I appreciate feedback and thanks for reading!