Disclaimer: In writing the below note, I'm taking extremes of each group into account. Please don't get your panties in a bunch over this one...
Right... so picture a triangle (for people who are already confused: That would be a three-sided shape). Let's make it an equilateral triangle (... three equal sides
). Now, at the top of that triangle, write "Conservative Christians", on the lower left hand point you can write "Liberal Pagans", and on the lower right-hand point, you can write "Hardcore Atheists".
What we have here, is what I've termed "The Exclusionary Triangle of DOOM". It's quite simple: These three groups want absolutely positively nothing to do with each other, to the point where they end up having more in common in their desperate exclusive from the others, then they do in difference by their varying belief systems.
The extremely-conservative people within religions like Christianity (which I'm only using as an example, since I used to be one, but this could easily also apply to other strictly-conservative belief structures like Islam) hold a strict set of beliefs that are true. If you are outside of that belief set, you are simply wrong. This is typically true of any Christian, but the reason I section out "extremely Conservative" people, is because not only are you wrong for being outside of the belief-set, you are considered bad, evil, wrong, and not even worthy of association. Some extremely conservative religious individuals actually go so far as to teach their children to avoid having non-Christian friends. Apparently, God will condemn you for associating with the heathen... or, the heathens can throw you right off the "good path"... Scary...
Moving on to Liberal Pagans. Obviously, these guys should be open-minded, loving, overall-embracing individuals who are pleasant to be around... accepting everyone as they are, completely the opposite of the aforementioned-group.... right? Sadly, this statement is no where near correct. While Liberal Pagans ring in at the opposite end of the spectrum from conservative Christians, what we have in this polar-opposite nature is a similar issue at hand: Intolerance. For the most liberal Pagans, if you hold any kind of belief set that differs from their own, you are automatically the "enemy" who is "out to get them". Anything you say of your own belief set is an automatic attack on their belief set. Saying something as simple as "This is what I believe" will often gain you an answer of "Oh so you're judging me for what I believe?" -- the most simple statements of subjective facts, turn into the most heated debates about universal truths.
In other words... the most liberal of Pagans will judge you and have absolutely no tolerance for you, if you are different from them. Having a belief set of any kind really and not being open to absolutely everything will pretty much get you the cold shoulder.
Wait.. wait, isn't this pretty much the same problem as just stated with the ultra-conservative Christians? Hmm..
Well then... Surely the Atheists have it right then. They don't even believe in God. Perfect... they obviously accept everyone at logical face-value then... right? Urgh.. oh so very wrong. While hardcore Atheists hold no belief in God, they are also desperate to de-shelf anyone else's belief in God as well. If you believe in God, then you aren't worth considering on a serious level. You're a joke, nothing but a failure of the universe. They have absolutely no tolerance for who you are, based on nothing more than the words "I believe in God". These people will throw the biggest stones they can find directly at your head in an attempt to make a kill shot... all because you believed in something.
Now... please stop to consider for a moment, that I'm really only talking about the most strict extremes in each of these categories. But I find it absolutely hilarious how each group expresses themselves as individuals who are privy to "universal truths" and hold themselves "above others", only to then turn around and shun/outcast the exact people they really should be embracing to begin with (Christians are commanded to love thy neighbor, Pagans should know better than anyone that difference does not make you bad, and Atheists should really stop caring so much about what other people believe [because it makes them look completely unsure of themselves]).
Each of these groups goes around yelling at the top of their lungs "Help, help, I'm being repressed!" -- and yet it is through their own actions that they bring about this exact reality. Therefor: By their fundamental exclusionary tactics, Conservative Christians, Liberal Pagans, and Hardcore Atheists (all the extremes of these groups, that is) take on the identical characteristics of each other... and for what purpose?
Well.. none really. None what so ever.
Isn't sociology fascinating?
Right... so picture a triangle (for people who are already confused: That would be a three-sided shape). Let's make it an equilateral triangle (... three equal sides
). Now, at the top of that triangle, write "Conservative Christians", on the lower left hand point you can write "Liberal Pagans", and on the lower right-hand point, you can write "Hardcore Atheists".What we have here, is what I've termed "The Exclusionary Triangle of DOOM". It's quite simple: These three groups want absolutely positively nothing to do with each other, to the point where they end up having more in common in their desperate exclusive from the others, then they do in difference by their varying belief systems.
The extremely-conservative people within religions like Christianity (which I'm only using as an example, since I used to be one, but this could easily also apply to other strictly-conservative belief structures like Islam) hold a strict set of beliefs that are true. If you are outside of that belief set, you are simply wrong. This is typically true of any Christian, but the reason I section out "extremely Conservative" people, is because not only are you wrong for being outside of the belief-set, you are considered bad, evil, wrong, and not even worthy of association. Some extremely conservative religious individuals actually go so far as to teach their children to avoid having non-Christian friends. Apparently, God will condemn you for associating with the heathen... or, the heathens can throw you right off the "good path"... Scary...
Moving on to Liberal Pagans. Obviously, these guys should be open-minded, loving, overall-embracing individuals who are pleasant to be around... accepting everyone as they are, completely the opposite of the aforementioned-group.... right? Sadly, this statement is no where near correct. While Liberal Pagans ring in at the opposite end of the spectrum from conservative Christians, what we have in this polar-opposite nature is a similar issue at hand: Intolerance. For the most liberal Pagans, if you hold any kind of belief set that differs from their own, you are automatically the "enemy" who is "out to get them". Anything you say of your own belief set is an automatic attack on their belief set. Saying something as simple as "This is what I believe" will often gain you an answer of "Oh so you're judging me for what I believe?" -- the most simple statements of subjective facts, turn into the most heated debates about universal truths.
In other words... the most liberal of Pagans will judge you and have absolutely no tolerance for you, if you are different from them. Having a belief set of any kind really and not being open to absolutely everything will pretty much get you the cold shoulder.
Wait.. wait, isn't this pretty much the same problem as just stated with the ultra-conservative Christians? Hmm..
Well then... Surely the Atheists have it right then. They don't even believe in God. Perfect... they obviously accept everyone at logical face-value then... right? Urgh.. oh so very wrong. While hardcore Atheists hold no belief in God, they are also desperate to de-shelf anyone else's belief in God as well. If you believe in God, then you aren't worth considering on a serious level. You're a joke, nothing but a failure of the universe. They have absolutely no tolerance for who you are, based on nothing more than the words "I believe in God". These people will throw the biggest stones they can find directly at your head in an attempt to make a kill shot... all because you believed in something.
Now... please stop to consider for a moment, that I'm really only talking about the most strict extremes in each of these categories. But I find it absolutely hilarious how each group expresses themselves as individuals who are privy to "universal truths" and hold themselves "above others", only to then turn around and shun/outcast the exact people they really should be embracing to begin with (Christians are commanded to love thy neighbor, Pagans should know better than anyone that difference does not make you bad, and Atheists should really stop caring so much about what other people believe [because it makes them look completely unsure of themselves]).
Each of these groups goes around yelling at the top of their lungs "Help, help, I'm being repressed!" -- and yet it is through their own actions that they bring about this exact reality. Therefor: By their fundamental exclusionary tactics, Conservative Christians, Liberal Pagans, and Hardcore Atheists (all the extremes of these groups, that is) take on the identical characteristics of each other... and for what purpose?
Well.. none really. None what so ever.
Isn't sociology fascinating?
