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Post by Shogun on May 19, 2014 15:41:02 GMT -6
Grant Morrison explained everything I would ever need to know about how to be a sorcerer in Pop Magic! and he's even able to give a naturalistic explanation for most of it despite the fact that he believes in magic in the first place. There's plenty of supernatural explanations for all of that kind of stuff, most of the time I can come up with a simple enough naturalistic one and then, well, Occam's razor. It's definitely fascinating to read people like Crowley and LaVey explain the things they did and those guys at least had some charisma. Then there are guys who flatly don't understand how science works and thus claim it's false. I still love reading the stuff but it gets a little much at time.
Ah well, if I ever go nutty I'll know how to channel the energy of the universe, create mystic amulets, exorcise ghosts and demons and kill all kinds of monsters.
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Post by sjfaerlind on May 20, 2014 4:54:04 GMT -6
Unfortunately, the "energy" thing is nothing but a parlour trick If you stared at your ceiling you would get the same result, or even if you did stare at one object, your eyes would eventually become blurred around everything but that object. I don't know the scientific explanation behind that, but I'm sure there is one. Though, if you want to, you could easily say that no matter what you're staring at, eventually you could see the energy coming from it or the universe or whichever. That's the wonderful (and sometimes dangerous) thing about belief systems; they can be applied to anything =) That's exactly why different perspectives are intriguing to me! It seems that anyone can see subtle patterns when they unfocus their eyes and look at just about anything. A scientist will explain that observation in one way, you call it a parlour trick, the author of that book says its the universal energy field at work, and somebody else will explain it in a completely different way. We are all looking at the same world but the way we explain what we perceive is uniquely individual. There are 7 billion people in the world and no two of them agree on everything. I don't believe there is only one "right" or "true" explanation for all of this stuff - only the one that works for each of us individually. With 7 billion different perspectives, I can't see how can there possibly be only one "right" answer, which is why I wouldn't automatically dismiss anyone else's ideas on what they believe. I just accept them for what they actually are: a different vision of the same world. As far as belief systems being dangerous....sure they can be! That simple fact should be enough to convince anyone to be careful what they believe in. I think where humanity goes wrong with this is that we tend to convince ourselves that opposing viewpoints are "dangerous" to us, even when they really aren't. Should I worry that someone else on the planet walks around seeing auras and universal energy fields everywhere they go? Nope. Why would I? That person isn't a danger to me at all.
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elcid
Supplicant
Posts: 15
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Post by elcid on Jun 13, 2014 0:29:40 GMT -6
I am Catholic but also open to all other faiths. I have a statue of Ganesh next to my Pieta statue. To me religion isn't a fact, it's a belief system. It's very fluid and very personal. There are many ways to connect to God and as long as you treat others with kindness, it doesn't matter what you believe.
I find religion fascinating and while I don't agree with everything the Catholic Church stands for, it's still what I choose to identify with. I admire people who have faith, no matter what it's in. It gives me hope and strength when it doesn't make sense to have hope. I believe in myself, but also that there is a greater force that I exist because of.
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