Post by Finn on Jun 22, 2007 8:17:23 GMT -5
This thread is picking up in the debate area as it clearly has become more deeper discussion than the pub normally warrants. To be honest, I hadn't noticed what section we were in to start with. I picked up the thread originally just going through the 10 most recent threads. We have so many sections.
Yes. Haven't you ever heard the saying, "I am part of everyone I have met." The same is in reverse. Anthropologists call it "cultural drift," religious folk call it coversion, and so on. The only constant in the universe is change. When you are exposed to new ideas you either switch to them, incorporate them into what you have which changes what you have, or take a stand against them. All three options change you. That being said, you did say something above that troubles me. This forum isn't just for "Eclectic Wicca" or similiar. It is for a vast variety of Wiccans, Pagans, and/or Heathens, as well as other religions that show up. You make the assumption that there is this SIMILIAR going on. I assure you that you and I for example, while both falling under the Pagan Umbrella, are not similiar. You have far more in common with say mainstream religions than you do with me. So your notion that you are here just talking to people like you, and hence not seeking to be changed much, is off the mark. The nature of being a Seeker is to be in a state constantly open to conversion should you find truth leads you donw a new path, or even an old one.
Hmm. Clarify what we are defining different please?
I can get behind this, but it seems to once again restate MY argument. Learning is changing. Changing is conversion. Alas for poor Lil'Red Riding Hood. Once you have strayed from the path, you will remember what you see there. You are forever altered by the experience. Consider for example our discussion. You will either:
1. Find my views interesting and start seeing things my way.
2. Find my views annoying and discard them without weight.
3. Incoporate them into your own view changing somewhat.
It really depends, at this point, on your emotional response. No matter what, you have heard my arguments. They are going to linger in there. If there is any truth to them whatsoever, they will come to mind whenever life reinforces them to you. I trust you see where I'm going with this. Exposure to an idea, which life experience supports, leads to inevitable conversion. This is why Christians have so many "Prodigal Sons & Daughters." This is why so many so-called Wiccans, Pagans, and/or Heathens end up going back to the religion in which they were raised. The lessons and teachings they got as children are still in there. All faiths (Christianity included) teach a good deal of commonsense and truth. Life will reinforce the imprint. The things told will seem more true, and conversion happens. Information is a virus. It just waits for its time to flare up and leave its mark.
So in this similar way your saying that if a person joins such a forum as this, as a part of a religion like ecclectic wicca or similar, and they dicover new ideas thus contributing them to the mass of there ecclectic path then the people providing the new ideas are converting said person?
Yes. Haven't you ever heard the saying, "I am part of everyone I have met." The same is in reverse. Anthropologists call it "cultural drift," religious folk call it coversion, and so on. The only constant in the universe is change. When you are exposed to new ideas you either switch to them, incorporate them into what you have which changes what you have, or take a stand against them. All three options change you. That being said, you did say something above that troubles me. This forum isn't just for "Eclectic Wicca" or similiar. It is for a vast variety of Wiccans, Pagans, and/or Heathens, as well as other religions that show up. You make the assumption that there is this SIMILIAR going on. I assure you that you and I for example, while both falling under the Pagan Umbrella, are not similiar. You have far more in common with say mainstream religions than you do with me. So your notion that you are here just talking to people like you, and hence not seeking to be changed much, is off the mark. The nature of being a Seeker is to be in a state constantly open to conversion should you find truth leads you donw a new path, or even an old one.
I think that, yes, we will have to agree to disagree because it seems were comming to a conflict between our definitions.
Hmm. Clarify what we are defining different please?
I cannot answer myself what the personal motivation for every person on a forum such as this is. Though my own motivation comes from the fact that i like to hear and learn from the perspective of others when i come to a debate like this. And the best way to subject yourself to a different perspective is to talk to millions of people from all around the world.
I can get behind this, but it seems to once again restate MY argument. Learning is changing. Changing is conversion. Alas for poor Lil'Red Riding Hood. Once you have strayed from the path, you will remember what you see there. You are forever altered by the experience. Consider for example our discussion. You will either:
1. Find my views interesting and start seeing things my way.
2. Find my views annoying and discard them without weight.
3. Incoporate them into your own view changing somewhat.
It really depends, at this point, on your emotional response. No matter what, you have heard my arguments. They are going to linger in there. If there is any truth to them whatsoever, they will come to mind whenever life reinforces them to you. I trust you see where I'm going with this. Exposure to an idea, which life experience supports, leads to inevitable conversion. This is why Christians have so many "Prodigal Sons & Daughters." This is why so many so-called Wiccans, Pagans, and/or Heathens end up going back to the religion in which they were raised. The lessons and teachings they got as children are still in there. All faiths (Christianity included) teach a good deal of commonsense and truth. Life will reinforce the imprint. The things told will seem more true, and conversion happens. Information is a virus. It just waits for its time to flare up and leave its mark.