Pagan Agnostic? Is there such a thing?

[marimara]

Obviously I'm looking for a label

These are my truths:

The world was not created by God or a god or goddesses or anyone else.

Nature rules everything, it is the law of the living (and the dead for that matter).

I do not pray to anyone or anything. If I send out energy to the universe, it's to the whole of life itself, the very breath of life, the spark of LIFE.

I believe that we are humans with a limited time on this Earth and we should do our best.

Afterlife: I'm not really sure. I'd like to believe in some kind of reincarnation (and in a sense life always cycles in some way) but for my personal 'soul' I'm not sure. It'd be nice.

I was raised a Christian and have had attempts at being brainwashing to think that Pagan=devil worshipper or something close, so I'm leery of the words "pagan" and "witches". And I know that this is not true, but pure ignorance, but somehow it still sticks with me.

I've been "not a christian" for close to 8 years now. I've just been in limbo without a true label, if you will.

Now, I don't really need a label to go on living my life, but I'm just feeling left out of the whole spiritual community.

Other things: I believe that stones and objects carry energy.

I believe in cycles. Sometimes that means karma. All things go in cycles, including energy.

I believe that Jesus was a man who lived a long time ago who had a message that was fundamentally good but who is not a god or the GOD and did not rise from the dead. I do not think rising from the dead in the literal sense is possible.

Same with all other "prophets'.

I am a logical and rational person. I also don't believe in gods or goddesses in the literal sense. If anything, they are archetypes to which we can study and possibly admire.

Is there a name for my thinking?

[gun]

Sounds like pantheism to me. Check http://www.pantheism.net/ see how that fits you. Good luck on your path!!

[marimara]

Thanks I really identify with that. I'd heard of it before but assumed pantheist meant believing in all gods, which is incorrect, it means "all is god". Interesting. Off to do more research. Thanks!

[wombatclay]

Two often confused terms are pantheism and panentheism... they sound so similar but have significant difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism

versus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism

There are elements of both in your list (though pantheism seems a closer fit at least as I read your list) and you might want to research the two.

[guitarmama]

marimara, our views are nearly identical.

[wombatclay]

Oh, totally forgot but to answer your thread title... of course you can be pagan focused and agnostic.

In addition to pantheism/panentheism there are animistic traditions that really don't bother much one way or the other with "divine beings". Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism for a quickie reference.

And many of the classical pagan philosophers spoke of faith/religion in terms similar to your comment about the divine being and archtype or rationalization of an unknown force/forces. There are a few recent books (Living With Honor: A Pagan Ethics by Emma Orr is an interesting read heavily influenced by the classical paganism of history) that might be worth requesting at your local library on that subject.

[CariOfOz]

I'd say absolutely I'm with Clay, panentheism might be something you should read up on! I somewhat lean that way myself and your list sounds a lot like me when I started this journey...a little has changed, and I've gotten over the pagan/witch hot words. They are just words to me now.

Ok... your list doesn't sound terribly different from me now actually lol.

[marimara]

Thanks, I've been doing some reading on pantheism and panentheism and can't see much of a difference in between them. It seems that pantheism sees that universe is god and panentheism says that god is greater that the universe. Since I believe in mulitiverses, as in there being more than one universe, it seems that panentheism might be a better fit but I've got more reading to do. Thanks for the insight!

However, I just found this about panentheism:

In other words, God is the universe but is also greater than the universe. Often panentheists also believe that this God has a mind, created the universe, and cares about each of us personally. Pantheists on the other hand believe that the universe itself is divine and do not believe in personal or creator gods.


The underlined part, I do not believe.

[Mountaingirl79]

I lean more towards atheism if you want to know the truth...but I love the mother earth and father sun symbolism of paganism.
I liked the part in that wikipedia link ( down at the bottom, I skimmed it. ) that mention people who think that the universe is divine in itself. ( Not a direct quote, obviously.) That's me.
I also like the Science of Mind. Has anyone looked into that? My hubby plays the drums once a week at a Science of Mind "center." ( It resembles a church in every way, we just call it plain ol' church. LOL)

[wombatclay]

And of course... "pagan" is such a broad label, it's hard to pin anything down. There are pagan traditions where there really is a specific list of "you must believe/do this" in order to be a follower in good standing, and traditions where the only rule is there is no rule.

So even the bit you've quoted starts with

Often panentheists also believe

. Which isn't exactly a "thou shalt" sort of statement, you know? Some panentheists do believe in a personal divine, some don't. And if you don't that doesn't make you any more or less a pagan or even more or less a panentheist.

It's one of the things that makes paganism "fun", but also "frustrating". I grew up in a religion where the rules were very clear, the consequences equally clear, and while following the rules may have been a personal challenge there really wasn't any personal effort in deciding which rules were going to be followed. (if that makes sense?) Although I enjoy the freedom that comes with paganism, some days I really wish some sort of glowing being would appear and just straight out tell me what I'm supposed to do/believe. I know utimately I wouldn't be happy with that sort of revealed truth/to do list but that sort of religion has it's own challenges and rewards.

[saphire]

marimara- I agree with much of what you posted. It does feel good to be able to define your spiritual beliefs, and it's nice to have a label too, because then you can find others who share some of your beliefs

[DebraLee32060]

 Totally agree!  Sounds like I was reading about myself!  Nature based is the way to go for me.  I can see it and feel it.  I'm so looking forward to conversing with like minded people.