Newsgroups: alt.satanism,alt.pagan,talk.religion.misc Path: shell.portal.com!svc.portal.com!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.kei.com!yeshua.marcam.com!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!csusac!csus.edu!netcom.com!key From: key@netcom.com (peter li'ir key) Subject: Re: Views on Satanism: Neopagan (LONG Co Message-ID: Organization: springhaven References: <9410062125592.DLITE.me194@delphi.com> Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 23:13:00 GMT Lines: 58 Xref: shell.portal.com alt.satanism:9642 alt.pagan:72810 talk.religion.misc:136817 me 194 wrote: m4> peter li'ir key (key@netcom.com) wrote: plk> sheri ellis wrote: se> If [Tyagi] wants to count se> himself among Pagans, all he really has to do is abide by our law: se> An' it harm none, do as ye will. And the Threefold law of Karma: se> everything you do comes back to you threefold. That's all any Pagan se> is bound to believe. But my experience with Satanists (which I admit se> is not all-inclusive, just a sample representation) is that they se> have no ethics. Any response? [some deletia] plk> i have some slight problem when morality is legislated in a dogmatic plk> fashion. the rede is a compassionate statement, but must be plk> tempered with a little thought about 'harm'. the threefold law plk> 'that's all any pagan is bound to believe.' perhaps that is what plk> _you_ are bound to believe, but i'd rather think not all pagans plk> need to believe as _you_ believe. i think modern taoists, plk> tibetan buddhists, hindus, asatru, shinto, and numberous other plk> groups generally qualify as pagans. perhaps, not your types of plk> pagans, but pagans none the less. m4> That's a very broad definition for pagan. I understand that pagan is a m4> category for a general lifestyle specificpe during the past m4> thousand years or so, where neopagans are the modern version thereof. m4> Vedantists and buddhists aspire to a pre-pagan `mythology'. there is a problem with the usage of the word "pagan." people use it to mean: 1) non-judaic/christian/islamic traditions. which would include buddhism, shinto, shamanism, taoism, asatru, and others. 2) non-judaic/christian/islamic _western_ traditions. which sould exclude buddhism, shinto, taoism, and several other eastern religions. 3) us, but not you. the first definition is the one i usually use and is the one my webster's dictionary agrees with. the second definition is fairly common, but tainted with a eurocentric veiwpoint. the third definition is admittedly tongue in cheek, but this is a common practice. it's used to exclude groups of people who one group does not like. and it is a most pernicious usage. peter li'ir key key@netcom.com