A 1939 short film looks at the amazing world of the future in the year 2000. Keep watching–there is a twist. As usual, the future looks different than people expected.
From Abortion to Icelandic Music and Back
So Jason decides that he would rather blog about abortion than Iceland Paganism, which leads me to follow the Icelandic Paganism link, as I have read all the usual blather that followed the murder of Dr. Tiller.
Thus I am lead to the documentary Screaming Masterpiece, about Icelandic music, which is now in my Netflix queue.
Must get back to work now — I have to finish my paper for the CESNUR conference.
Back when I had to teach first-year composition, the joke was that students in search of a topic tended to fall into well-worn ruts: abortion, gun control, the drinking age, etc.
Dealing with the first one was easy, after a while. I just issued a classroom fatwa that only people who had had an abortion could write about the topic.
The real purpose, of course, was to segue into a discussion of pathos and how hard it was to write convincingly about a topic with which one has no emotional connection.
Your Prayers, Our Magic–Do They Always Help?
It’s a common argument among Pagans–Witches in particular–when conversing with monotheists to say something like, “What you call prayer, we call spells,” or words to that effect.
No doubt we think ours are better. No one is testing them, but there have been a number of studies attempting to quantify the effects of “intercessory prayer,” usually meaning prayer for people facing health crises.
Some seemed to show that such prayer helped, results that were seized upon by Christians.
But the results of one are not so simplistic, reports Christianity Today magazine. (I urge you to read the whole thing.)
The study received some attention at the time [three years ago], but seemed to have escaped the notice of many Christians, probably because of its surprising—and for Christians, disturbing—conclusions.
. . . .
The result: The group [of surgical patients] whose members knew they were being prayed for did worse in terms of post-operative complications than those whose members were unsure if they were receiving prayer. The knowledge that they were being prayed for by a special group of intercessors seemed to have a negative effect on their health.
Where does that leave people who say that you should get permission before “working” for anyone?
The authors then turn theological:
Our prayers are nothing at all like magical incantations [!]. Our God bears no resemblance to a vending machine. The real scandal of the study is not that the prayed-for group did worse, but that the not-prayed-for group received just as much, if not more, of God’s blessings. In other words, God seems to have granted favor without regard to either the quantity or even the quality of the prayers.
And then they have to jump through more theological hoops to answer the obvious question, “Then why pray at all?”
Obviously, that is not our theology. Pagans do not expect the gods to conform to our standards of either/or logic.
But try reading the article and substituting our language for its authors’. How would you respond?
What Happened to Ecopsychology?
Lupa posts on bioregionalism, animism, and ecopsychology.
When M. was in grad school in psychology in the 1990s, she hoped that ecopsychology would be the Next Big Thing. Articles on the psychological affects of interacting (or not) with the non-human world were popping up in places like McCall’s magazine. Addressing “nature-deficit syndrome” would be a component of it–even the Girl Scouts are onto that.
But as an overarching concept–even without acknowledging “spirits of place”–ecopsychology does not seem to have caught fire except in a low-level therapeutic way: “Gardening makes you feel better.”
Possibly related is the way in which a certain kind of self-righteous environmentalism may be ripe for mocking. Are we still too leery of assigning spiritual value to non-human nature? Doing so has been a component of American spirituality since around 1800, as Catherine Albanese wrote in Nature Religion in America: From the Algonkian Indians to the New Age. But it has always been a minority position, although a well-established one.
. But it has always been a minority position, although a well-established one.I used to start my nature-writing students with the “Where You At?” quiz. It offers a quick immersion in bioregional thinking and blends both non-human and human cultural material.
Pagan Travel Blogger
The Examiner blog network, which signed Murph Pizza to cover Paganistan, now has a Pagan travel writer, Paula Jean West.
Are we a niche market, or what?
The New York Times Wants You to Stay Helpless
Don’t turn your soft, computer-tapping hands away from the keyboard and pick up a hammer. That seemed to be the message in Sunday’s New York Times. Self-reliance is dangerous.
This woman made a mistake when replacing a toilet. So, therefore, she should not learn from her mistake and do it right the next time. She could call a plumber instead.
When in doubt, do nothing. Call the authorities.
Then there is this story about a peril for urban gardeners — lead in the soil from the days of leaded gasoline and older paints. The hazard could be real — and the article presents some fixes — but I cannot help thinking that the underlying message is “Don’t even try growing your own food.”
Remember, boys and girls, the government and the official state-approved priests always know what is best for you.
A Hymn to Extrication and Destruction
In my role as a volunteer fireman in this little hamlet, I went to a “vehicle extrication” class today in a nearby town. That meant learning to use the “Jaws of Life” (firemen just say “splitter”) and other hydraulic tools for ripping apart vehicles in order to remove injured occupants.
In that larger department’s classroom, the instructor had written on the board:
Welcome to Vehicle Extrication
Cut It. Split it. Ram it.
And all I could think of was Aleister Crowley‘s “Hymn to Pan.” (YouTube version here.)
Through solstice stubborn to equinox.
I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end,
Mannikin, maiden, maenad, man,
In the might of Pan.
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan
I’ll bet Uncle Aleister would have liked to see us ripping the roofs and doors off of motorcars.
Gallimaufry with Gray Matter
• Paganistan gets a designated blogger in the Examiner network, Murph Pizza.
• A “prehistoric pin-up”? Archaeological video from the journal Nature.
Patheos’ Pagan Gateway
I have had the privilege of helping to create the “Pagan gateway” on Patheos.com, a new interfaith religious portal site designed to help people find “ credible, comprehensive, easily accessible information on religion and spirituality.”
Founders Leo and Cathie Brunnick are trying to create a site that is comprehensive, academically sound, but accessible to everyone, with all the usual bells and whistles — discussion forums, blogs, etc.
Time’s article on the overall Patheos site produced some picky responses on the GetReligion blog.
Of course Patheos will be compared to Beliefnet.com — from the Pagan perspective, I think it is a lot better. I wrote earlier about my bad experience as a blogger with Beliefnet.
The “Arts & Entertainment” link is not yet working, but will have information on musicians, movies, and so on.
Go visit, see what you think, and stake out a spot on the discussion board. The Pagan Gateway team is supposed to seed them with provocative questions.
Concentration and Its Enemies — II
I blogged recently on concentrating on one’s work in an online world … wait, I have to check some blogs … OK, I’m back.
At John Tierney’s blog the discussion continues. All sorts of perspectives:
Fortunately, I am able to focus, but one of the reasons is because I have schizophrenia, although now it is in remission
What are the dogs barking at?
Another commenter says,
I sometimes find that low-volume, rhythmic, bass background sounds (e.g., the thrumming of an airplane’s engine, some examples of techno music) help me to concentrate, or, at least, to concentrate on material that doesn’t require my full attention.
I concur. (movie reference–got to look it up.) An iPod loaded with “trance” or some techno music can indeed put me in a bubble where I can get some kinds of work done.
Hey, look, a kitty!