Pagans and computers

[helemon]

I thought Dogzilla would like this, but since there were so many of you who were classified as neo-pagan by the Belief-O-matic, there are probably others who would find this interesting:

http://www.skepticfiles.org/xhate/glenda.htm
Adler's questionnaire also asked what, if any, relationship exists
between paganism and computers. "The answers ran the gamut from people who
felt the question was ridiculous to those who were convinced that 80
percent of the pagan community actively used computers and that there was
an important and striking relationship between the two," writes Adler.

"Pagans are playful by nature" one respondent said, "and the computer
is the most endlessly fascinating toy ever invented." Some linked the
magical aspects of paganism to the "magic" of computers. "Symbolic thinking
and patterning are essential to magical thinking. Like magic, computers
work in unseen ways to accomplish tasks," noted one respondent. "Like
magic, computers require a procedural and logical mind, yet sometimes defy
logic," said another.

Another explanation involves the right-brain/left-brain relationship.
Some say that when a person spends a great deal of time in intellectual
pursuits, like computer work, it's important to balance that with more
intuitive, experiental endeavors that involve the whole body. "You'll see
some computer programmers out there dancing around the bonfire under a full
moon having a great, wild time," says Selena Fox, high priestess of the
Circle Sanctuary, a spiritual nature center, and Wiccan Church, in Brigham
Township, Wisconsin.

Fox believes the allure of the religion for these so-called
"techno-pagans" may be what she sees as neo-paganism's futuristic aspects.
"It's on the leading edge of advances in all levels of society. For that
reason, the people tend to be more future directed and are looking for a
form of spirituality that can take them into the 21st century."

[dogzilla]

I think it's a bit ridiculous, actually. It's too bad the people quoted sound like loopy new age idiots. :Crazy: I guess I can sort of see where they're coming from, but for me, the computers and spirituality are mutually exclusive.

See, paganism, for me, is all about how the power that Christians call "god" in their universe, is present within each and every one of us and in all living things. We all can create and destroy and make choices freely.

On another message board, there's been some discussion of free will. (Speaking of making choices...) This ought to give you guys something to sink your teeth into. The example cited was a little 8-year-old girl was brutally gang-raped and left for dead in a dumpster in Florida or Georgia someplace. (Probably Florida because it seems if the freaks don't live in CA, they live here. Butanyway.) When the little girl was rescued, barely clinging to life, she asked for a pastor so she could thank God.

The debate sparked: thank God for what, exactly? Being rescued? If God had anything to do with her rescue, why didn't God make it happen sooner? Better yet, why didn't God prevent the rape-and-left-for-dead in the first place? Why not curse God and blame God for what happened to her? For letting her live to have to deal with the pain and anguish and emotional damage for the rest of her life? For testing her faith. :puking:

The debate rages on and I digress. (And you can take that hijack and run with it, if you care to. Seems like something you'd all enjoy chewing on around here. :D) My point was, I worship the sky and the stars and the trees and animals and flowers and water and everything. My computer does not give me peace, nor a sense of unity within the universe. It's a tool I use to make a living and nothing more. But hey, some people wanna thank God for they perceive to be the good things in their lives. Some people think their computers are as spiritual as the trees outside. Whatever.

Your mileage may vary.

[aether]

Some people think their computers are as spiritual as the trees outside.

"The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to deman oneself." ~Robert M. Pirsig

Whether you like motorcycle maintenance or not, I think Mr. Pirsig here has a point. If there is divinity.. I think it's in everything, not just naturally evolved objects. That being said.. I don't feel like my computer is sacred. I hope it's not sacred; I yell so many obscenities at it.. :p

I also think those pagan-computer people were silly though. I think they were really just stretching for something to write about.

[dogzilla]

"The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to deman oneself." ~Robert M. Pirsig


Great book, but I think Pirsig was quite insane.

Nope, I just don't feel the same way about my inanimate, man-made objects as I do about trees, animals, sea and sky. If there were a nuclear holocaust tomorrow, I would not mourn the loss of my car or my computer, or Pirsig's motorcycle... I would mourn the loss of the things people can't make or replace.


Like the ozone layer.