Meh. I can see the article-writer's point, and it is something that I've thought about. The problem, really, is where do you draw the line that the author is professing needs to be drawn? In my mind, a human gave the gods names. We said, "This is Ra/Odin/Hera, and he/she has told me this". So, if all gods are constructs, then who cares, when we're supposed to be a path about personal spiritual growth and a bunch of nonconformists besides, what they're called? We use thoughtforms and symbols ALL THE TIME in just about every type of magick. Who cares where they've come from, if they work?
This is all coming from a purely personal-use standpoint: I mean, whatever you call your god/goddess is less important than that you gain peace and love and guidance and strength from him/her, in my opinion. However, I think that the article author wasn't just talking about it from that personal standpoint. They were talking about how paganism as an ORGANIZED RELIGION is held back by such beliefs.
...hold on, I'm trying to wrap my brain around paganism being ORGANIZED. Yeah, I got nothing...moving on anyway...
They do have a point, though. If we care (...and for me, this is a HUGE if, since I'm a solitary and personally don't give a shit about how anyone else views my religion so long as they're not discriminating against me), yes, really out-there beliefs hurt our credibility as a Serious Religion, because they let folks point at us and say, "they are obviously just crazy, I mean, they believe X and Y! No one in their right mind would believe that!" But then...we've got Christians who still believe in transubstantiation. I guess my point is that every religion's got its folks who believe some really out-there things, and all they show is that some people in every religion are gullible and not great at logical thought. But then...we're all believing in things that you can't prove exist (that's what faith means!), sooooo.... :shrugs:
Overall, I think that the fact that we don't have a lot of the "traditional" religious trappings (a unified set of teachings, a Holy Book, a supreme religious body) and basically were just cobbled together in the last 50 years hurts paganism's case for being a Serious Religion more than the Hobbit Brigade does.
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This is all coming from a purely personal-use standpoint: I mean, whatever you call your god/goddess is less important than that you gain peace and love and guidance and strength from him/her, in my opinion. However, I think that the article author wasn't just talking about it from that personal standpoint. They were talking about how paganism as an ORGANIZED RELIGION is held back by such beliefs.
...hold on, I'm trying to wrap my brain around paganism being ORGANIZED. Yeah, I got nothing...moving on anyway...
They do have a point, though. If we care (...and for me, this is a HUGE if, since I'm a solitary and personally don't give a shit about how anyone else views my religion so long as they're not discriminating against me), yes, really out-there beliefs hurt our credibility as a Serious Religion, because they let folks point at us and say, "they are obviously just crazy, I mean, they believe X and Y! No one in their right mind would believe that!" But then...we've got Christians who still believe in transubstantiation. I guess my point is that every religion's got its folks who believe some really out-there things, and all they show is that some people in every religion are gullible and not great at logical thought. But then...we're all believing in things that you can't prove exist (that's what faith means!), sooooo.... :shrugs:
Overall, I think that the fact that we don't have a lot of the "traditional" religious trappings (a unified set of teachings, a Holy Book, a supreme religious body) and basically were just cobbled together in the last 50 years hurts paganism's case for being a Serious Religion more than the Hobbit Brigade does.