alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (existentialism)
alias_sqbr ([personal profile] alias_sqbr) wrote in [personal profile] thuviaptarth 2007-10-14 03:23 am (UTC)

Re: tl;dr paganism tangent

Hmm. See I personally like secularisation, but I think this is largely a result of my own specific attitudes to religion, and am less sure that it would be such a positive thing for other people. I mean right now I'm an atheist, so obviously enjoy secularised stuff more, and as a christian I was a very iconoclastic protestant who felt all the traditions were meaningless crud getting between me and God. But I've met a number of religious who engage very strongly with traditions as an intrinsic part of their religious experience, and for whom a separation of tradition and religion would mean a diminishment of both.

Anyway, I think it would be great if multiple non-christian traditions and stuff became an accepted part of the cultural landscape as they seem to be in, say, India or Singapore. But it's very easy for non-majority religions/cultures to be seen as as quaint and exotic so that people "play" at engaging with them without taking them seriously, as a lot of people do with paganism. That is, it's not enough that people say "Happy hanukkah!", they have to have some understanding of what hanukkah means as a celebration of thankfulness and jewish freedom(*) in the same way that non-christians understand christmas's significance as the birthday of Jesus and a time of joy and giving (This last paragraph is me thinking out loud, it has no real point, sorry :))

(*)I think that's what hanukkah is about. I'm a pretty good example of the "before people have a good understanding of other religions" picture :)

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