Do pagans and heathens really understand why no one takes them seriously?

Question

Pagan and heathen "religions" are mostly joined by people who spend inordinate amounts of time on the internet. They talk about making altars, performing rituals and profess to holding high-minded ideals about peace and protecting the environment, but in actuality they are too lazy to do anything except make up elaborate internet profiles on various websites. They are natural attention whores and love adopting titles for themselves but little, if any, religious practice.

Apparently remaining in aforementioned "religions" causes vast amounts of weight gain as evidenced by the physical appearance of most pagans and heathens. This is best explained by constant internet usage, the non-stop sitting and snacking that is associated with endless keyboarding, and the refusal of pagans and heathens to get a job or otherwise contribute to society in a meaningful way.

Answer 1

What are you talking about? You can't just generalize about an entire group of people, esp when you've probably never even met what you call a pagan or heathen. I PERSONALLY know over fifty people (my husband is part of this group) who follow what most people call Wicca or paganism and they are just normal people with normal lives. They have jobs, they go to school, they love their kids--and most of them are better people than any of the so-called christians I've known. Stop being such a bigot and think before you type.

Answer 2

*snicker* You've never met a Heathen have you? If you ever did you'd realize just how far of the mark you really are. I'm far from being over-weight, if anything the opposite is true, I'm rather slender. Please tell me what pretentious titles I have adopted for myself? I'm aware that Wiccan's sometimes choose craftnames, but I'm no Wiccan. Asatruars don't generally have any fancy names or titles. Nor am I that much into practicing magic, I leave that to the folk who are genuinely interested in it. I do practice what I preach, but then again, you are not even the slightest bit aware about what high-minded goals I hold now are you?

Methinks you are protecting about the whole weight gain, not having a job, and spending too much time online. As evidenced by your having spend all this time concocted this flame.

Answer 3

It seems that you are spending some time on the internet. By asking a question of this nature, and by your own description, it seems like you are one of those that you call "attention whores". Maybe you should look at those sitting with you in your congregation. Are they all slim and trim? Sitting for hours at church doesn't seem like an exercise class.

Each person contributes to society in one way or another. What do you think about those who are mentally or physically challenged and cannot hold a job... or even move out on their own? Do you call them fat lazy pagans?

You are a sad and uninformed person. Oh, what's that I see? Another violation? I did not mean to offend, but you did.

Answer 4

"Do pagans and heathens really understand why no one takes them seriously?"

Asked by the person who spends enough time on the internet to watch pagans and heathens talking on the internet, exploring our profiles, coming up with broad generalizations and judgements, and then posting an obviously inflammatory question about it to Yahoo Answers.

I'm only here because it's a slow day at work. I'd rather be hiking.

Answer 5

Interesting observations. However, they are greatly different from my own.

I am one of the organizers of a local Pagan community and about half of our members do not even have internet access. Many of the others are too busy for me to possibly believe that they spend any significant amount of time on the internet.

My particular faith require significant amounts of fasting. I frequently go a couple of days without eating at all. I almost never eat between meals and never at the computer (I type with two hands).

Pagan groups with which I am involved run benefits for the local domestic violence shelter, food drives for local food banks, we raised money for disaster relief after the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, we cleared rusty metal from a neighborhood park we adopted, we volunteer in county parks, and do a number of other things. I donated about 30% of my income to charity this past year.

Additionally, every single member of our group here as a job to the best of my knowledge. We have doctors, nurses, phlebotamists, medical technicians, real estate agents, managers at fast food restaurants, managers at bakeries, teachers, customer service workers, lawn care specialists, accountants, engineers, small business owners, city employees of all sorts, plumbers, factory workers, and daycare providers. I am sure we have even more than that, but those are all of the ones I can match to people off the top of my head.

Answer 6

Ask any christian since they are pagan to the bone. Heathens are something christians call others so ask a pagan christian about that one. You are on the internet snacking and typing so I guess you got a fat behind too. Why don't you get a job? You are ignorant and a troll.

Answer 7

You generalize in a rather dramatic way. And you are wrong. I don't know where you get your information or what experiences have led you to draw these conclusions, but they're clearly drawn from a very limited pool. I know a lot of Pagans personally. I make it my business to know as many as I can. I personally know 2 who are obese and one of those is rapidly changing that. All the rest range from somewhat chunky to skinny. The majority are somewhere in between. I don't know a single unemployed Pagan, except those who choose to be because they are housewives (one of whom is also a foster parent) or full time students and I know very few of those- and even those volunteer, are also artists or do temp work sometimes. We gather monthly and several times a year for festivals, usually outside. Our gatherings often involve volunteer work, hiking, camping, trips to zoos, museums and historical sites, gardening, arts and crafts and learning.

None of us have titles. Most of us don't have funny nicknames. Most of us do have altars in our homes, often several. But we don't talk about them much because they're a given. We don't whine about not being taken seriously either. But we are firm in our expectation of being treated just like everyone else, because we ARE just like everyone else. We don't try to be different.