Paganism is pretty broad. There are some that don’t really have theistic beliefs, though they may have supernatural beliefs. Not a problem for me as an atheists, but a problem for me as a rationalist.

All the pagans and wiccans that I’ve met have been pretty tolerant people and not intent on (for example) running the country based on their beliefs, so I don’t find their beliefs to be much of an imposition on mine.

Posted: July 16th 2008

See all questions answered by Eric_PK

The vast majority of people who are Atheists are so because of a lack of evidence for the existence of God, combined with the illogical nature of people claiming to know God’s desires and properties. Given the fact that we don’t see God’s mark in the world as definitively as we do say weather patterns, it’s ridiculous that any mere human can claim to know exactly what an almighty creator wants us to do in terms of our moral choices, along with other notably pervasive lifestyle choices such as our choice of sexual partner.

Paganism in whatever form makes similar claims about the nature of the Universe. Pseudo-scientific claims about the spirit, energy fields, auras etc. have as much claim to truth as people who claim to know the mind of God. Studies have shown that the effects of such techniques (crystals, herbs, magic etc.) are at best a placebo. It’s much the same as someone who prays for God to change their life for the better. The only difference is the entity they invoke; religious people invoke God, Pagans invoke Gaia or the Earth-Spirit. Either way these same ideas about the planet and how it operates are as baseless as the belief in God and lacking sorely in hard evidence.

As has been pointed out by many including Richard Dawkins in his documentary “The Enemies Of Reason”, such ideas can do harm financially to others given that people flimflam their way into convincing people these techniques have some scientific basis behind them. It also causes issues for real medical healthcare, as people divert both their time and money to pointless endeavours, thus bringing attention away from the real medical practices based on real scientific study and effort.

Posted: July 15th 2008

See all questions answered by Maxx Power

At present, there is a crisis in Evidence/Science based medicine. It is being infiltrated by practitioners of woo. Valuable and limited funds are being directed away from needed research and funneled into topics so wonky they are not even proper topics for research.

People are being frightened away from needed treatment by these woo practitioners. Childhood communicable diseases are on the rise because of the wooer’s campaign against vaccinations (a certain percentage of children need to be vaccinated in order for collective vaccination to be protective for a society).

The New Age approach is no different from any other religion. Instead of god, the wooers believe that nature loves us all and knows what is best for all of us. Apparently, there are some of us that have 'hotlines’ to nature instead of god. Like all religion, New Age beliefs are useless at their best and dangerous at their worst.

Posted: July 15th 2008

See all questions answered by logicel

If it teaches untruth (in the empirical definition of truth) and it teaches people to think uncritically about the natural world, I would say it is wrong.

Wicca is as wrong as any other religion, and even if it doesn’t kill nearly as many people as the others it isn’t any more correct.

Posted: July 14th 2008

See all questions answered by Reed Braden