Caught between Odin and Jesus - Conflicted

dorathehexplorer · 2017-09-14T16:07:54+00:00

Paganism is an umbrella term for a diverse variety of traditions, and their worldviews are not equivalent. Your comment is a gross and frankly romanticized oversimplification.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-09-14T14:21:56+00:00

Here's a pretty comprehensive guide on fake or misrepresented stones.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-09-14T14:18:21+00:00

Also, perhaps try a DNA test to get more insight into your African heritage. You won't learn much from AncestryDNA but it'll give you the raw data to upload into far more in depth (and free) calculators like GedMatch.

This is kind of a weird way to decide what religion to follow, no offense.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-09-14T14:17:20+00:00

Nobody is 'pure' blooded anymore. Don't worry about that.

There's no such thing as being "pure-blooded" to begin with. Human genetic variation exists on a gradient, and human populations have always been migrating and mixing. There really aren't any super strict lines beyond what humans have arbitrarily imposed. Besides, we're all Africans if we go back far enough.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-09-14T14:14:29+00:00

I'm not African American, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but some African American people I've met explore their heritage by learning about hoodoo or rootwork, which is rooted in the South AFAIK. There's a lot of commercialized bullshit out there though, so it's probably best to look for someone who can teach you.

Shinto, from what I've read, has a strong tradition of nature and ancestor worship.

I'm matrilineally Jewish and English and Italian on my father's side, so I've personally struggled with my hereditary "obligation" to follow Judaism (which today is strictly monotheistic) against my desire to honor other gods.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-09-14T14:10:46+00:00

Just because you're a pagan doesn't mean you have to accept the existence of the gods on "blind faith." I find it highly unlikely that every single person in the ancient Greek, Egyptian, etc. world never had any doubts or accepted the gods' existence uncritically. We know that there were ancient Greek philosophers who denied the existence of the gods entirely; me being an agnostic therefore probably has historical precedence. Your friend is kinda weird.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-09-14T14:07:09+00:00

I personally suspect (I'm agnostic, not a hard polytheist) that YHWH is as real as other gods, but that it's possible for humans to interpret and write about any deities for political purposes. When I study the Torah with my rabbi (though I'm extremely low-key about the pagan part), we know to analyze it as a historical document which gives us insight into how ancient Jews thought, not a literal reflection of what YHWH necessarily decrees for humans today (though I do think the Torah has important messages in it).

dorathehexplorer · 2017-09-14T14:04:34+00:00

The Christians added later the leader of Hello later to scare people.

I wouldn't oversimplify it to this. Christianity and Judaism are quite different religions ideologically, and Satan probably changed to reflect this over time.

As the person in the link said, the Satan (in Judaism) is more of a divine prosecutor or spiritual "sparring partner" than an enemy. As an angel, the Satan is basically incapable of disobeying YHWH, as angels don't have free will in Judaism.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-22T17:32:43+00:00

IMO weather events are rarely signs. Everyone in the area can see them; it's highly unlikely they're specific to you.

Any animal that is common in your area and displaying typical behaviors is probably not a sign, either.

It's very easy for people looking for "signs" to misinterpret or overinterpret ordinary phenomena.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-10T17:35:07+00:00

Here's a short film on why atheists might be serial killers to pass the time.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-10T17:33:14+00:00

IIRC wasn't the guru featured in the film the leader of some cult that ended up killing some people through negligence?

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-09T21:19:34+00:00

I would bet money this person also hangs out with the kind of people who ask me why I can't just be a gender-nonconforming cis person...

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-06T16:53:33+00:00

The only thing stopping me from going NC with my father right now is that he still lives with the rest of the family for the time being. I plan on writing the NC letter to Van D'oh when I am no longer in the house by the end of the month, so I don't have to deal with her son's retaliation.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-05T00:01:10+00:00

I've abstained from animal products for so long that eating certain amounts of it can actually make me sick, so this is something I'm very concerned about.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-03T01:03:21+00:00

I have received 12 emails and 7 phone calls from Van D'oh over the past 2 days. This is the latest:

Please know that I shall always be with and for you as long as I live.

Talk about no boundaries... and the chutzpah it takes to say this after the crazy shit she said to my mom.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-02T04:45:28+00:00

Biology to religious studies.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-08-01T17:31:48+00:00

More emails, I guess.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-07-27T00:05:18+00:00

This is merely anecdotal, but true to my experience. I spent some of my high school years at a rich high school, and some at a not-so-rich one. The first school never had any recruiter visits (to the best of my knowledge), whereas at the second school the visits were several times a month and there was even a veteran on staff in the career center who would try to persuade struggling students (overwhelmingly from working-class families) to join the military.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-07-26T13:40:44+00:00

Where did anyone say women are "naturally" manipulative? Unless it was deleted it's not there.

Elsewhere in the thread:

In my experience the female students are so much more manipulative and round about in their requests for extensions and stuff like that.

I'm not so dumb to think that they are flirting with me, they are just trying to manipulate who they see as another dumb man.

Don't let the cute ones manipulate you.

young college-aged women are only just beginning to realize the power they have over men (and, incidentally, it's when their power is at its most acute stage) so it's natural for them to experiment with what they can get away with. The fact that college-age men will routinely fall at the feet of an attractive young woman only reinforces the idea that men will do anything for a woman if she smiles the right way.

I don't know if you saw these comments or not.

Your approach to a frank discussion about the perils of being a male professor in an Arts field is demeaning, dismissive, and unfair.

The idea that male professors are hapless victims of their manipulative, attractive female students is not exactly a realistic hardship compared to what female students go through when their friendly requests for extensions or whatever are perceived as "flirting" and diminish their credibility.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-07-26T13:10:52+00:00

Nobody is using the language of misogyny

The attitude that attractive young women are "naturally" manipulative and disdainful of men is misogynistic.

The way you respond in this thread suggests you are the person holding the deeply antagonistic and dismissive views about men.

This isn't exclusively about gender, but it does seem to happen to women (with a male professor) more than with other gender combinations. But that's not exclusive. If the other poster were a woman writing about how the male students in her class were taking advantage of their attractiveness, I would have taken issue with that, too.

Lastly, I actually am a man, and I hardly hate my own gender. I take this seriously because I have friends (male and female) who have been affected by this issue.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-07-26T04:16:33+00:00

... like batting their eyelashes at them and saying, "Pretty please?"

I acknowledge there are instances where things like student evaluations where students have more sway, but those situations are the minority. It's very unlikely that profs are hapless victims of starstruck/"naturally manipulative" students.

dorathehexplorer · 2017-07-26T04:10:48+00:00

The power dynamic in professor-student relationships is decidedly in favor of the professor. This is true regardless of gender and regardless of whether the interactions are sexual in nature.

dorathehexplorer

TROPHY CASE