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"The Graveyard of the Gods"

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
So some atheist groups on college campuses have been setting up "graveyards" for what they view as "dead gods". They're trying to make a point that just because your religion (presumably Christianity or Islam, since obviously other religions don't exist) is widespread today, it doesn't mean it won't "die" sometime in the future.

You can see one of them here: Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics (AHA!): God Graveyard (They've done it this year, too. Apparently it's becoming somewhat of a Halloween ritual for them.)

Obviously, as a Heathen, I find this very offensive, demeaning and ignorant. Obviously, pretty much all of those Gods are still worshiped today, and some never ceased being worshiped. Sure, many of Them have smaller followings these days, but the following is still there. To us, these Gods are very much alive and as vibrant and healthy as ever. (Also, in polytheistic systems, numbers really don't matter. The Gods don't tend to be "greedy" for worshipers and we don't tend to seek converts. We are not exclusivists and do not seek to replace or destroy other religions.)

The ironic thing is that these groups are behaving with the same mentality as the narrow-minded Christians and Muslims (not that all Christians and Muslims are that way) they claim to oppose. They have the same worldview and accept the same false history. Apparently they believe that the historical worshipers of those Gods simply dropped their worship after finding it "silly" and "useless". They apparently don't realize the massive cultural genocides that have taken place all throughout the globe where native folkways and even people were wiped out and subjugated.

They are also shooting themselves in the foot since they are alienating potential allies. Many Pagans are progressive and ardently support the separation of church and state. All movements have their ugly side and this is the ugly side of the "New Atheist" movement. It's just as stupid and narrow-minded as the people they claim to oppose. They are just the flip side of the coin and have the same mentality. They feed off of each other and need other to survive.

They have not demonstrated that they have thrown off the shackles of narrow, dogmatic thinking. They do not deserve to wield the title of "freethinker".

Also, these are college students, which speaks volumes about the dreadful state of American education.
 
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Brinne

Active Member
Some of the names in the graveyard were understandable but when I saw the pictures of Anubis, Ra, and Freya I kind of went "Ummm?" Kemeticism isn't really that obscure either! They seem, for the most part, to be one of the more organized pagan beliefs!

But I guess if it ain't Christianity, Islam, or Judaism it doesn't exist - right?
 

Bunyip

pro scapegoat
There is no 'new atheist movement' it was just a label given to Dawkins and a couple of others in a magazine article. There is no new atheist movement, it is not an ideology, a group or an organisation.

Anywho, reading the OP - Graveyard of the God's, I assumed you were referring to the internet.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
There is no 'new atheist movement' it was just a label given to Dawkins and a couple of others in a magazine article. There is no new atheist movement, it is not an ideology, a group or an organisation.

I'm not really interested in arguing about that. Whatever you want to call those people. The label works for me.

Anywho, reading the OP - Graveyard of the God's, I assumed you were referring to the internet.

Lol. Sadly not.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
The ironic thing is that these groups are behaving with the same mentality as the narrow-minded Christians and Muslims (not that all Christians and Muslims are that way) they claim to oppose. They have the same worldview and accept the same false history. Apparently they believe that the historical worshipers of those Gods simply dropped their worship after finding it "silly" and "useless". They apparently don't realize the massive cultural genocides that have taken place all throughout the globe where native folkways and even people were wiped out and subjugated.
They don't? Where are you getting this from? I don't see it in the article you linked to.
 

gsa

Well-Known Member
Having traveled in these circles, I think it safe to say that the New Atheists are not incredibly moved by appeals to political solidarity. They run the gamut from conservative and libertarian to social democrat and communist. Their opposition to theism (poly, mono, pan, panen, etc.) is in no small part rooted in the belief that worshipping gods is per se irrational and dangerous. Now there's a continuum of approaches there (I'd say that on the whole they are more receptive to dharmic and pagan beliefs as opposed to Abrahamic) but I don't know that tolerance of polytheism is really something that they would regard as a virtue. More often than not, they'd point to intolerance of polytheism in Abrahamic traditions as a vice, without committing themselves to respectful treatment of polytheism.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
Having traveled in these circles, I think it safe to say that the New Atheists are not incredibly moved by appeals to political solidarity. They run the gamut from conservative and libertarian to social democrat and communist. Their opposition to theism (poly, mono, pan, panen, etc.) is in no small part rooted in the belief that worshipping gods is per se irrational and dangerous. Now there's a continuum of approaches there (I'd say that on the whole they are more receptive to dharmic and pagan beliefs as opposed to Abrahamic) but I don't know that tolerance of polytheism is really something that they would regard as a virtue. More often than not, they'd point to intolerance of polytheism in Abrahamic traditions as a vice, without committing themselves to respectful treatment of polytheism.

So they're just antitheists.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
God seems to be favored over humanity to many theists. Although I am a theist, I think depending on God instead of humanity, or putting faith in God but not humanity, is self destructive and we are on the verge of destroying ourselves. If we hadn't already...

Yes, I can agree with that. That is a problem in certain theisms.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Comments people have made in support of it and the sort of mentality they're displaying.
So when person A does something, person B's supporting comments tell you what person A was thinking?

I think the execution leaves a bit to be desired, but I don't see an issue with pointing out that Christianity (or Islam, or any other religion) is just another religion, not too different from other religions that the Christian (or whatever) rejects.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
So when person A does something, person B's supporting comments tell you what person A was thinking?

I think the execution leaves a bit to be desired, but I don't see an issue with pointing out that Christianity (or Islam, or any other religion) is just another religion, not too different from other religions that the Christian (or whatever) rejects.

The entire premise of the project is to show that all religions eventually wither away. In order to make that statement at all, you have to be very ignorant of history and even of the scope of religious practice in the present day.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
The entire premise of the project is to show that all religions eventually wither away. In order to make that statement at all, you have to be very ignorant of history and even of the scope of religious practice in the present day.
It says that they die out. You're jumping to conclusions when you say that they're trying to show that they "wither away".
 

gsa

Well-Known Member
So they're just antitheists.

They certainly can be. But if they are mocking paganism, it is only because they want to illustrate that there is no functional difference between polytheism and monotheism. Or as I often heard it put, "Once you understand why you believe in one god instead of three, you will also understand why I believe in none instead of one" or something along those lines. So while it elevates polytheism, it also identifies polytheism as irrational, because monotheism is also irrational.

One caveat: Not simply anti-theist most of the time, but anti-supernatural. Notwithstanding exceptions like Sam Harris, there's not much love for dharmic concepts like karma, samsara, rebirth or reincarnation, etcetera.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
It says that they die out. You're jumping to conclusions when you say that they're trying to show that they "wither away".

I'm not going to nit-pick with you. Although, if they do realize what happened to many of those religions, that means they're knowingly mocking victims of imperialism, colonialism and genocide, which is even worse.
 
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