Religion Amongst Metalheads

[PrincessHades]

What are your religious views? I am a Pagan, specifically one of the Germanic/Norse variety. I'm more familiar with the Nordic etymology, though.

 

[CiG]

Why are you a Pagan? Wasn't so long ago I believe you said you weren't religious or an atheist?

I just label myself a freethinker. I'm an atheist with a deep interest in religious archetypes and I support religious freedoms etc.

 

[PrincessHades]

Why are you a Pagan? Wasn't so long ago I believe you said you weren't religious or an atheist?

I just label myself a freethinker. I'm an atheist with a deep interest in religious archetypes and I support religious freedoms etc.

I never remembered saying I was an atheist. I considered myself one from when I was 9 to when I was 14. I gradually developed spiritual views from then onwards. I believe in various spiritual forces. Originally, I epitomized this as one archetype-Satan. Eventually, I became more educated religiously, and I started to realize that Satan isn't the best representation of spiritual truth. I see the deities as symbolic of forces in nature, and also aspects of man. For exame, Odin is correlated with the mind, the spirit, and wind, Thor with strength, the body, direct wisdom, storms, and gravity, Baldr with the sun, light, and enlightenment, Freyja with sexuality, love, fertility, procreation, and so on and so forth.

I feel that giving these things human images makes them more relatable; it makes the gods speak to us better.

I understand why you'd ask such a question though. There are a lot of people, almost universally kids my age, who hear a Viking metal album, or even worse, hear some mainstream power metal and suddenly start referring to themselves as followers of Heathenry, even thought they know nothing about Odinism beyond Thor. I am new to Paganism, having been a Pagan since roughly last August, and I don't present myself as some sort of authority within it, but I will speak my views.

 

[CiG]

You watch Styxhexenhammer666 don't you?

 

[PrincessHades]

You watch Styxhexenhammer666 don't you?

How did you know? My extensive vocabulary?

I used to watch his channel religiously, but prefer Varg Vikernes's channel. Much more enlightened and he tends to speak his mind rather than give detailed explanations of political events.

Both seem really intelligent, but Styx's material has become boring and too based on current events that my mom constantly talks about at the dinner table.

 

[CiG]

I know because you have this high opinion of Paganism yet you have the stereotypical anti-Abrahamic religion/atheist personality. That's 100% Styxhexenhammer666 hahaha.

 

[PrincessHades]

I know because you have this high opinion of Paganism yet you have the stereotypical anti-Abrahamic religion/atheist personality. That's 100% Styxhexenhammer666 hahaha.

Judaism (and even more so, Christianity) introduced the idea that man is above nature. Most Pagan religions believed in reincarnation, and that there was an afterlife in a different world, but only as a transitional phase. Christianity (I don't know much about the Jewish idea of afterlife, but I'm going to assume it has something to do with gold), teaches people that it's okay to destroy each other, to destroy nature, as long as you accept the teachings of the religion, which is total bullshit. Their idea that life on Earth is only a temporary "test" is what fucked us over.

I understand what you mean though. Many Pagans seem to hate Abrahamism because it is some form of "bondage", a restriction of freedom, when in reality, Pagans weren't fond of homosexuality for the most part, nor were they fond of any other sexual deviants. Granted, Paganism generally lacks stupid bans on premarital sex, but still, Paganism isn't some sort of safe space for liberal SJWs.

 

[CiG]

That all just sounds too oversimplified for me to really engage in. You sound like you get your views on Christianity from Dawkins and then mix it with Varg. I would recommend you actually study Abrahamic religion itself, rather than it's characterisations.

I'd especially recommend you check out videos dealing with religion by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, who explains Judeo-Christian religion from the position of psychology, evolution and universal archetypes.

 

[Halberd3]

I'm very agnostic.

 

[Mister Pink]

I'd especially recommend you check out videos dealing with religion by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, who explains Judeo-Christian religion from the position of psychology, evolution and universal archetypes.

Jordan Peterson's description in the last hour of his guest appearance with Joe Rogan was profoundly moving. I consider myself atheist but really identify with Peterson's view of religion, as you said, from a position of psychology, evolution and universal archetypes. The man so so eloquent, it's very refreshing to hear.

I'm not anti-religion. I'm anti-fundamental religion, also against individuals that take religion as fact, take it literally and are science-denying to keep up the charade.

However I respect someone's religions beliefs so long as it's not forced on others through school indoctrination and they don't perform genital mutilations or cause violence in the religion's name.

 

[Psychopath]

I was born and raised a Christian. I abandoned Jesus because Atheism really seemed to make more sense than all the Christian bullshittery to me. I discovered satanism but I don't worship the devil or anything however I do see Lucifer as an Hero giving humans the freedom of free will (I don't believe in Lucifer but he's like a fictional misunderstood hero). I believe in some sort of God and I believe in an Afterlife (I ended up there cause I'm interested in the paranormal).

 

[CiG]

How old are you?

 

[PrincessHades]

I was born and raised a Christian. I abandoned Jesus because Atheism really seemed to make more sense than all the Christian bullshittery to me. I discovered satanism but I don't worship the devil or anything however I do see Lucifer as an Hero giving humans the freedom of free will (I don't believe in Lucifer but he's like a fictional misunderstood hero). I believe in some sort of God and I believe in an Afterlife (I ended up there cause I'm interested in the paranormal).

So Satan is the same thing as Lucifer to you? I see both "Satan" (truth/adversary) and Lucifer (light-bearer) as titles applicable to various deities. For example, Odin could be viewed as both Satan and Lucifer, and Baldr as Lucifer.

The Satan of the bible was stolen from neighboring religions. His image was sort of a composite between deities like Ea and some Indo-European deities as well. His image is mostly Indo-European as well. The story Adam and Eve story was also stolen from Indo-European Paganism. That is why in Heathenry, there is the myth of Askr and Embla, translating literally to "Ash and Elm".

 

[CiG]

No, none of these things are stolen from other religions, that's a severely naive and uneducated view. All religious tales are the result of universally archetypical truths and that is why religion and mythological oral traditions are a fundamental element of humanity.

Your main problem with how you frame these topics is that you have a clear agenda wherein you treat Paganism and Heathenism as the starting point and everything afterwards is an act of theft from that starting point. It's a typical Vargian/edgelord internet atheist mistake.

The figure of Satan/Lucifer, who in terms of religious archetypical symbolism are the same figure, actually represent chaos - the opposite of the religious archetypical symbol of order which is God, or Zeus, or Odin and so on.

Now the reason Satan/Lucifer represents truth and the light, yet is proposed as evil, is because you have to step into chaos to discover the truth of anything. For example, when the first people tried to tame the element of fire they were dealing with chaos because they could have easily died in the process, but once they tamed that fire they were no longer within the realm of chaos and were then in the realm of order, as they had tamed the fire.

 

[elohimeth]

norse pagan, but i don't practice religion that much. i used to be a pantheist in the past, and somehow i still feel like it. it seems common amongst metal listeners to identify themselves as pagan. my "unofficial" religion is doom metal.

 

[CiG]

my "unofficial" religion is doom metal.

 

[latrodectusmactans]

Where is Agnosticism?

 

[CiG]

On the fence where it belongs.

 

[latrodectusmactans]

I was about to take that seriously but then I saw your location.

 

[PrincessHades]

Where is Agnosticism?

It doesn't exist.