Our friends the heathens
Raven Banner blogger and heathen Dave Haxton often links to this blog, and some of his friends have apparently expressed puzzlement that he links to an evil atheist. He has posted an interesting response.
It took me some thought to decipher the term "Asatru", btw, as I had not seen the English spelling earlier. The Norwegian term is "åsatru," from the aesir (Norse deities) and tru meaning belief or faith.
I have two immediate comments. First, and vaguely tangential to this article: I think it would be sad if people only link to or read blogs and other material that agrees with their own position. I wasn't an atheist when I was younger, and I suspect Haxton hasn't always been a heathen. Just feeding from those who belongs to "our side", be it the same religious or the same political views, in my opinion hinders intellectual progress. Few things in life are very clear-cut black and white, especially when it comes to murky things like politics, ideology and ethics, and if you can't admit that the "opposition" sometimes makes good points, you are probably more secterian than you should be.
Second, and more relevant to Haxton's argument: Yes, my beef is really more with monotheists than religiousity generally. True, I believe in the doctrines of no religion, but I think there are valuable insights in all of them (yes, including Christianity). Yet, it is my strong conviction that the basic teachings of the monotheistic religions are factually wrong. While I am often passionate about facts, I realise that these debates are mostly intellectual in nature. It is not difficult to appreciate the opinions of people I disagree strongly with.
More seriously, I oppose the attempts of religionists to force others to abide with their rules. In this part of the world, even in rather secular Norway, Christians fight tooth and nail to force their particular beliefs and moral systems into the laws. Christianity has been a massive obstacle to human rights, it has pushed represseive sexual moralism, it has opposed women's rights, and it still is a serious problem for reproductive rights and gay rights. Many Christians oppose the teaching of evolutionary science, and want to replace it with the myths of an ancient tribal culture, which is just a part of the religionists' opposition to intellectual freedom and science. Islamists and Christian fundamentalists alike oppose secular, liberal democracies and the free exchange of ideas and views. This is idological warfare, unlike the polite debates we can have about metaphysics with the more moderate fractions of Christianity, Islam or most other religions and belief systems. In the trenches of this hard ideological war, surely secular humanists (non-communist atheists) and heathens belong in the same camp.
9:49:16 PM 
|
|
