Pagans: have you ever heard another pagan say something and wanted to laugh?

Question

I'm not even being sarcastic. I actually had that happen and I had to try really hard to keep a straight face which of course made me feel really bad. Just wondering if anyone else has had this.

And I mean religous wise. Like they told you something they believed and you had to bite your tongue.

LOL I dunno. This is something she REALLY believes. And I know lots of people out there believe it too. And she's a nice enough person. But the thought went through my head "And you wonder why people don't take us seriously???"

Oh good goddess. I just looked up "otherkin".......oh good goddess.....

Answer 1

Otherkin.

*snerk*

Gets me every time. Sorry if you're reading this and think you ARE are one . . . sorry FOR you, not TO you.

That and bad scholarship, which happens here on Y!A at least as often as anywhere else . . . but that usually makes the vein in my forehead throb, rather than amuse me.

Answer 2

Yup, laugh, and at times try to pretend I wasn't there.
Deo's Shadow is a Pagan podcast, and there is one episode about calling BS, that is really worth listening to.

Some Pagans make these ridiculous claims, some have no idea what they are talking about. Then again, it seems to be the same with followers of any religion. I've actually heard Christians claim that they've witnessed someone being raised from the dead. You call them on it, and they'll say that they "know somebody who saw it". You ask for documentation and they say they'll try, but it never shows up.

There are good and bad in all groups. Stick with the good ones.

Answer 3

It is nice to have a sense of humor but quite another thing to laugh at something that some one believes. I have noticed in some of my own faith a tendency towards arrogance that bothers me. I have made my share of mistakes over the years and have wandered down paths that once I had the correct info, I knew to be wrong ones. I am so thankful to the elders and teachers who corrected my errors and lead me back to where I needed to be. Our paganism, what ever part of it you claim to be, is riddled with wrong info or out right lies that have been put out for various reasons. I most likely will continue to walk down paths that are wrong and will have to retrace my steps many times until I get it right. On my way I try to correct the ones that I find wandering on the wrong paths so that they may find the right ones again. I owe that to the many who have helped me. Perhaps a less humor is needed and alot more help to those who are struggling with misinformation.

Answer 4

I suaully want to scream, not laugh.

The one the really took the cake one day was "The Christians stole the idea of the trinity from the Morrigan, the monotheistic goddess of the Celts who was viewed in maid, mother and crone forms. The Celts were a peaceful race that abhorred war under the guidance of their Goddess."

And I was left thinking "Where do I even start on this mess?"

Answer 5

Oh yes, a few times. One, though, I couldn't hold back because the whole thing was so outrageously contradictory that it was funny. How in the world can someone claim there is no "evil/bad" in the world and then complain that Christians (in the past - they were referring to the "Burning Times") are evil? Of course, she was very upset with me and finally fell silent when I told her it was useless to believe in Karma if there is no "evil" in the world... I just can't see how people can be blind like that and I can't help but laugh at it because she practically said all of this in one breath.

I have a VERY hard time dealing with the Fluffy side of Paganism... if I'm not laughing at how ridiculous some of it is, I get annoyed with it.

Answer 6

Oh yeah... about a year ago i saw these freaks on the Tyra Banks show.. they made us look like freakin idiots. The"white Witch" was shamlessly promoting her new love spell book, and the "black" magick users were spouting how well they cursed people if it was nessicarry... I was fumeing and laughing all at the same time,. The ONLY ones who even seamed real on the show was the Satanists... At least they didnt say Um every three seconds... I have been a pagan for about 14 years and i have had completly sane looking pagans spout off at the mouth to non pagans about the wonderfullness of our religon, and the "wicked cool spells", (LMAO this guy was on a roll) he casted. I elbowed him and said Pearls.(as in before swine).. He got it and shut up, thank what ever god was looking in at the time. Dont feel bad, NEVER feel bad if you think some one is off there mark, tell them nicely, if you like that you dont agree. Other wise people have a habit of taking your silence as a kind of agreeing. Good question ... go pagans, its r birthday, yea! lol

Answer 7

Do the words "Welcome to my world" answer sufficiently enough? ::groans:: Some of the stuff I've had to put up with... just look up the "Irish Potato Goddess" if you want to see how bad it gets. (Hint: Potatoes are a New World plant, didn't exist in Ireland until a few hundred years ago...) Seems like saying the word "Celtic" brings out everybody with an imagination, and leads to jokes like, "Three reincarnations of Merlin walk into a bar...."

I end up doing a lot of correcting people - but it's a long, slow, uphill battle.

Answer 8

As someone who identifies as Otherkin, and has written a book about the topic (see http://www.thegreenwolf.com/afgto.html for details and an excerpt of the first 30 pages), I have to challenge the idea that the concept of Otherkin is all fluff.

Yes, there are flakes and nuts in that particular community. However, you can't judge us all by that, just as you can't judge all pagans by the activities og King Kev (see http://www.kevwitch.co.uk/ if you have no idea who I'm talking about).

I've seen snark and other stupidity perpetuated in the pagan community by arrogant people who think it's their gods-given right to judge anything they don't personally agree with as inferior. Do I think we need to call B.S. on individual cases, such as someone claiming to be able to shoot fireballs out their various orifices? Yes. Do I think we need to question bad scholarship? Yes. Do I think we need to accept anything and everything that comesout of the mouth of a pagan? Certainly not.

However, I think that we are our own worst enemies. We have less to worry about from Christians and other nonpagans, than we do from our own. The amount of infighting and witch wars is ridiculous--I mean, how much do we really have to argue over who really owns the word "Wicca"?

And unfortunately, sometimes people make snap judgements about things they know nothing about, or about things that don't exactly match their own viewpoints. They deem entire philosophies and groups as being too "fluffy". However, in many cases I've seen this as a manifestation of their own fear of being judged--the general thought is "If I can get everyone else to pay attention to that person over there, then maybe they won't notice my own mistakes and shortcoming and ostracize me". It's classic playground behavior--gang up on someone else to keep from getting ganged up yourself.

There needs to be a good balance between *constructive* criticism within the pagan community, and open-mindedness. I can demonstrate, for instance, how my Otherkin identity works in nicely with my spiritual beliefs. The problem is that sometimes I feel like I have to shout over the closed-minded preconceived notions of other pagans who feel that they know everything about something they actually know very little about.

Answer 9

Or wanted to cry. When someone seems convinced that they have it all figured out, are sure that someone else`s view is incorrect, give a judgement and a comment with nose uppointed, thusly...........it is usually not a good sign of ones own restraint to laugh at ignorance in others............but, yes.

Even at some of these answers, but the best laughs are at onesself.

/!\

Answer 10

Too many times. Sometimes the claims of people new to their belief system are just plain ludicrious.

I sympathize. But I take this stance - I refuse to feel bad because someone else remains purposefully ignorant.