{"id":890,"date":"2007-06-09T14:55:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-09T14:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=890"},"modified":"2007-06-09T14:55:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-09T14:55:00","slug":"cliftons-three-so-far-laws-of-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=890","title":{"rendered":"Clifton’s Three (So Far) Laws of Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since my blog-pal<\/a> Gretchin asked about the “laws of religion,”<\/a> here they are.<\/p>\n

1. Nothing Ever Goes Away Completely. Every religious doctrine or practice ever invented is still being carried on by someone, somewhere.<\/p>\n

2. The Disciple Is More Obnoxious Than The Teacher, which is the spiritual corollary of the old maxim, “The servant is more snobbish than the master.”<\/p>\n

3. All Genuine Religions Have Torchlight Processions. See, for example, the one at the beginning of this documentary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now before all the Buddhists come after me (unless they do<\/b> have torchlight processions in Sri Lanka or somewhere), let me say that this law is more aesthetic than philosophical. With all the advances in techne<\/i> over the past millennium, still nothing speaks to the soul like flickering flames moving through the darkness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since my blog-pal Gretchin asked about the “laws of religion,” here they are. 1. Nothing Ever Goes Away Completely. Every religious doctrine or practice ever invented is still being carried on by someone, somewhere. 2. The Disciple Is More Obnoxious Than The Teacher, which is the spiritual corollary of the old maxim, “The servant is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3,4],"class_list":["post-890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-blogging","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-em","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1602,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1602","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":0},"title":"My ‘Third Law’ in Action","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Over at The Juggler, Sara Adrian links to a video clip of a bunch of Scots demonstrating Clifton's Third Law of Religion: It's not a real religion unless it has torchlight processions.\" And remember, ritual precedes myth, not the other way around.","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=446","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":1},"title":"Updating Zeus","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I Still Worship Zeus, a documentary film on Pagans in Greece that was filmed shortly before the Athens Olympics, is now available from National Film Network--handy for both individual and instutional buyers. New features on the DVD include a trailer and slideshow of production stills. There is more information too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1122,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1122","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":2},"title":"A Cathedral Re-discovers Mystical Religion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My laugh-out-loud moment Sunday came when reading an article in the Denver Post titled \"Finding Faith in the Wilderness.\" (The full name of the Episcopal cathedral in Denver is St. John's in the Wilderness.)Below, dozens of candles flicker near icons in the dark nave. Incense hangs in the air. Congregants\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12715,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12715","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":3},"title":"Celebrating Spring with a Castle-Burning","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan writer Rhyd Wildermuth, now living in the Ardennes Forest, or as he prefers, \"The Forests of Arduinna,\" offers this video of a local end-of-winter celebration called Buergbrennen (castle-burning). He sees it as an ancient Pagan celebration taken over by the Christian church. Maybe so. Or maybe some Luxembourgish Ronald\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"equinox\"","block_context":{"text":"equinox","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=equinox"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":888,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=888","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":4},"title":"Gallimaufry","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 All genuine religions have torchlight processions (Clifton's 3rd Law of Religion), but how do you make a torch? This guy has answers. For more Neolithic fun, make your own rock-and-plant-fiber oil lamp. He has instructions for that job too. It's all a metaphor for living.\u00b6 I have been remiss\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7744,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7744","url_meta":{"origin":890,"position":5},"title":"Paganism Close Under the Surface","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In central and eastern Europe, and maybe elsewhere, there is a tradition to end a group hunt for deer, boar, and other animals with a ceremony. I have never seen the like in America, but then all my hunting has been with individualistic Westerners \u2014 which is not to say\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"hunting\"","block_context":{"text":"hunting","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hunting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}