Cool News! Germanic Iron Age Settlement Found Near Famous Viking Settlement (Free Content)
Check out this article about a 1500-year-old farming village near Jelling in central Jutland. Way cool!
Has Religion become Irrelevant?
Has religion become irrelevant? This is an odd question for a Heathen to ask others who believe in our gods, but it is a serious question. Those of you who have read this blog for any length of time are probably rolling your eyes and sighing because I came from fairly agnostic to almost atheist beliefs, only to be yanked into Heathenry by a few gods. Don’t get your panties in a wad; I still consider myself a Heathen. But this question of Has religion become irrelevant? echoes this pronouncement by the National Geographic. So, like most things that I write, I’m going to be trodding on some toes here.
The Fastest Growing “Religion”
The fastest growing religion in developed countries isn’t a religion at all. It’s what those wankers who compile statistics refer to as “nones.” The “nones” are those without a religious affiliation, i.e., agnostics, atheists, and those who just don’t care. They’re such a growing force that they’re considered the second largest “religious” affiliation in half the nations around the world, including the United States, the bastion of Christianity.
It’s not surprising that some underdeveloped countries and former communist countries have had an increase in religion, but overall in developed countries, religion isn’t growing. If there’s good news to be had by the pagan religions, the non-Christian faiths have grown 1.2 percent in the United States. That’s pretty small in my book, when you consider all non-Christian faiths make up a little under 6 percent in this country. However, we’re looking at nearly 71 percent of Americans consider themselves Christian in some way.
Why People Don’t Believe
I read through the article and it had some interesting points. People are quick to point to science as the reason more people are leaving the churches, and they’re not entirely wrong. As science is able to provide answers, it becomes apparent that those things that people long ago thought were miracles or impossible are actually quite explainable. But although science had a lot to do with secularism, the ability for the skeptic to meet with other skeptics online and in person helps solidify the feelings of there being no god or gods is probably a stronger pull. After all, people usually feel closer to their gods when they are together and praying than alone. (I said usually.) It helps to have people who believe the same things you do around to strengthen your beliefs (or lack thereof). The other reason for lack of belief has to do with education. The more educated you are, the less likely you’ll believe in a deity or deities. (This isn’t to say that highly educated people don’t believe in a god or gods. This simple shows that there is a correlation between education and atheism.)
Science, Dammit!
I talk quite a bit about science, and quite honestly, I tend to accept scientific explanations over things that are often called supernatural. Too often people make up stories about things and they’re retold as fact, but the reality is that without critical thinking and scientific proof, it’s just old wives’ tales and urban legends.
As science and technology continue to advance, less and less natural phenomena is ascribed to the supernatural. The Earth revolves around the sun. We do not have a sun which has a tangible chariot being driven by Sunna across the sky, nor is the moon carried in a physical chariot across the sky driven by Mani. The sun and moon appear to move across the sky because of the rotation of the Earth. But neither are fixed. The moon rotates around the Earth, and the sun is moving and dragging us along in the Sagittarius Arm at 45,000 miles per hour.
Does Religion and Science Conflict?
It’s easy with the talk of science to discount religion in its entirety. Religion was often used to answer the tough questions of the universe: How did we get here? How was the earth made? In much earlier times, people told stories to explain how these things happened. They weren’t accurate or factual, but they were satisfying stories and were told by people to others in a way to understand the world around them.
Logic and reasoning gradually took hold. As we searched for answers, we eventually came up with theories that fit the overall evidence that we found. As our methods and testing became more advanced, we could actually accept the theories as fact, or near fact. Stories about Odin and his brothers forming humans from trees are interesting, but we know from archaeology that humans evolved over millions of years to what we are now.
Religion and science often clashed over dogma, especially when the Roman Catholic Church held power. Heretics were often excommunicated, or worse. But facts are facts. People can claim that the world is flat all they want, but because the world is really round, eventually the truth wins out.
Is Religion Relevant?
So, the question remains is if religion is still relevant when we have science to explain nature and the physical laws of the universe. More and more religion has taken to explaining what is in the gaps rather than coincide with what we know is true. Known as the “god of the gaps” or divine fallacy among atheists, many religious types use that as a reason for why their god(s) exist. It goes something like, “well we don’t know what started the big bang, therefore the Christian God (or name your favorite creator god, i.e., Yahweh, Odin, Atum, Vishnu, etc) must have created it.” It’s a fallacy because it assumes that we won’t find an answer.
If we take our myths at face value, we can say with certainty that they are wrong. The gods didn’t carve humans from trees; the Earth isn’t the bones and body of some frost giant named Ymir. But if we take them at a metaphorical level, we begin to see the mindset and even the understanding of our ancestors and recognize certain elements in them that science postulates is true.
Let’s look at another religion, for the sake of argument. The number of miracles the Christian god has performed has decreased rapidly with the advent of cameras. When multiple people can record video on their cellphones, it’s hard to claim supernatural occurrences. Those who do are highly suspect due to clever video editing. They often use pseudo-science to back up claims. In other words, I suspect a large portion of their magic is just fallacy, wishful thinking, and outright falsehoods.
I use the Christian god as an example because so many in the United States call themselves Christian, but the statement holds true for pagans in general. I haven’t seen any of the M-word* that convinces me that it truly exists that can’t be rationally explained through science in some fashion. (Granted it may be in areas such as quantum physics, but it may be able to be explained.)
That being said, I’ve experienced enough weird shit as a Heathen that hasn’t been captured on video because I don’t go around with a cellphone taking video of everything I see. Even if I did, it happen so fleetingly that I couldn’t have picked up my phone fast enough to capture it. Some isn’t visual. Some happens in my head and my dreams.
I suspect religion and our belief system will remain relevant largely because we’re human, and we may not be able to know everything there is out there. Even if science figures out everything about our universe, there are other dimensions and other universes out there, if one is to believe in the multiverse. If there is just one universe but it is infinite, then there is even more weirdness that we can’t possibly wrap our heads around because it is bigger than we can ever reach in billions of lifetimes.
The TL;DR Takeaway
Gods, if you’ve gotten this far on this post, I must thank you. If you’ve skipped everything I said above, go back and read it.
So, what do I think? I believe that the gods and probably religion will remain relevant as long as we are human. They may morph over time and may just become metaphors, or they may grow with our knowledge.
At this time, I’m willing to accept that there are other beings, more powerful than ourselves, who either set in motion the creation of our Universe, or are manifestations of the very forces they wield. We know that string theory insists that there are at least 10 dimensions, and maybe more. Who knows what is hiding in those areas we can’t see?
Yeah, maybe it is the god of the gaps fallacy written large. But all I know was I was willing to stand by my agnosticism until Tyr and Thor pulled me into Heathenry. At some point, you’ve got to make a decision about your beliefs. I know I did.
*M-word = magic
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How Close are We to Following in the Gods’ Steps?
I was doing research for my last piece on Heaven, Hel, and Valhalla, which took me on a whirlwind tour of what science thinks about souls, the beginning of life, and other amazing things. This is when I ran into a huge post about how scientists have been putting together the pieces of life, and are very close to creating an organism.
Holy shit. What kind of implications does that have for religions, and in particular, Heathenry?
How Close Are We to Creating Life from Inorganic Matter?
How close are we to creating life from matter? The answer, much to my surprise is: very close. It seems that there are groups of scientists scattered across the world who have come up with pieces on how life may have formed. The TL:DR version is that there have been many theories but the one that seems to come closest is the formation of cells spontaneously given a group of chemical reactions. In fact, one scientist has created protocells with the ability to reproduce, carry a genetic code (RNA), take in molecules, and even compete against other cells for survival.
This has brought scientists to the point where they have figured out the type of environment necessary for life to arise. They have a pretty good clue what brought about life. They just need the right amounts of chemicals in the right conditions.
Holy shit.
Creation Myths
Every culture has some sort of creation myth to explain how life came into being. The Heathen version tells us how the gods appeared through the rime created from heat of Muspell melting the ice that flowed from Niflheim. Ymir, whose body eventually became Midgard, was the first frost giant born from the ice. Buri, the first god, was brought into being by a cow licking the rime.
I’d hazard to say that most heathens don’t take our creation myths literally, but most accept Odin as the creator god of humans and the world. Odin and his brothers, Vili, and Ve, created our world as we know it, and together they fashioned humans from trees. Odin giving humans the breath of life, Vili giving us our consciousness and feelings, and Ve giving us our senses.
It’s a nice story, but it is one that doesn’t really play with science much, especially if we can cause the same chemical reactions and “breathe” life into things that are not alive. (Although one could argue that trees are indeed alive. So, we have some issues here.)
So, Do We Throw Out Religion? Why the Hel am I Writing
This?
Religion, to a large degree, answers questions that have not been answered/cannot be answered by science. What if we do create life? What then? Does that eliminate our gods–or any god? I believe the answer is no.
I believe that our gods are metaphors for the Universe, itself. I’m not quite pantheistic, but darn close, because, let’s face it, science seems to eliminate a lot of the woo-woo in religion. And if we believe our senses and reason, it’s the only thing we have to go on. Hence, the Descartes, “I think, therefore I am.” We must start at some point, somewhere. If they’re wrong, then the whole thing is a futile exercise and we just may be some kid’s simulation in a computer down in their mom’s basement.
But Occam’s Razor suggests that the simplest solution is often the correct one. Reality is reality and the processes that occur are strictly natural. Despite all the universes in the multiverse, most that do not have our physical laws and would not support galaxies, solar systems, and life, we ended up with a natural 20 on the die roll. Luck, or something else? At some point, we just have to make sense of what we have and go with it from there, making changes to our beliefs as we discover more about our world, and how life came into being.
Is There an Odin? Thor? Freyja? What about Tyr?
Actually, I believe that Occam’s Razor is a guideline, and not an actual rule. I believe, give the weirdness of the quantum world, that our gods do exist in the other planes of existence that we cannot experience. I believe that they are controlling forces that we have seen expressed so perfectly in mathematics. And I’m not sure that they didn’t affect our development in the quantum universe. We know that a series of very happy circumstances brought about our life. Who really knows if a single quantum flip was all we needed to create what we have? And who is to say that Tyr didn’t create the conditions, and Odin didn’t cause the overall process to take form?
So, Are We Playing God(s)?
We are at a crossroads in humanity. We may be able reproduce the exact circumstances that caused our life to evolve on Earth. A handful of cells, artificially brought to life, is suddenly both exciting and scary. These cells aren’t necessarily something as complex as a human, or even an insect, but they stand for how far we’ve come. In essence, we have done what gods have done: created life from a handful of minerals and compounds. On Earth, the life that appeared through a combination of chemical reactions eventually evolved into the creatures we see today. So, it does put the question out there: are we playing god or gods?
That’s an interesting question. We may be bringing about life that could eventually become a larger, more intelligent organism through evolution, but it would take more that all the lifetimes of humanity to evolve something from our new creation to what we have present day. A bit more than 3 billion years, to give you an idea. So, until we get hold of Idunn’s apples, I think we can safely say that our god-like roll is fairly limited.
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Was Mani Responsible for Life?
The other day I had several awesome ideas for blog posts. They were full of insight and witty
thoughts. I even put the ideas down in drafts so when I was out of clever ideas, I could just start on one.
Note to self: don’t put down ideas when you’re sleep deprived. No, they aren’t that wonderful.
So, for these reasons, the post is a bit late. I also had some errands I’ve had to run on Saturday, so sue me. In retrospect, I may salvage a few of the pieces. I’ve salvaged at least one of them. In this case, I’m writing about the moon and how scientists think that it may have something to do with the development of life on our planet. You see, I was looking up at the beautiful strawberry moon on solstice and feeling thankful that we have it. So, this post is about the moon and why we should be glad it is in the sky.
A Bad Moon on the Rise
I’ve thought about going down the direction of the full moon jokes, but that would be childish and immature. Which is why I’ve broken down and yes, gone that direction, because I’m not above being childish and immature. So, let’s get that out of our systems right this second and get down to mooning.
Why Our Moon is so Special
Our moon isn’t like other moons in our solar system. Most moons either formed while the planets were being formed and were stuck in their orbit around the planet. Either that, or the moons were captured by the planet’s gravity and are hanging in there for the time being. If you look at the various planets and moons, you’ll notice something peculiar about our planet with our solitary nightlight and the rest of the planets and their moons. Namely, our moon is not only solitary, but it’s big when compared to the mass of the Earth.
It is more than a quarter of the Earth’s size at 27 percent. In fact, no other planets have such a size ratio at 4 to 1 — all other moons we know about are much smaller than their planets.
Our moon actually formed from a collision between the Earth and another, smaller, protoplanet that scientists have named Theia. The theory (and BTW, if you’re having trouble with the word, “theory,” read this) is that some 4.5 billion years ago, only a very short time (relatively speaking) after the Earth came into being, some 30 to 50 million years, Earth and Theia were vying for the same space. Both protoplanets were still very hot and were still forming, so when they crashed into each other, something interesting happened. Theia didn’t smash headlong into the Earth; rather, the blow was more of a glancing blow. The result caused matter to be ejected from the Earth and Theia to get partially swallowed up. Both planetoids as they re-coalesced became locked in each of the other’s gravitational pulls. The moon is identical in composition to our Earth, which along with computer simulation models provide the explanation to its existence.
So, that alone makes our moon special, but what is really interesting is that without our moon, we may not have had life form. Here’s the explanation.
How the Moon may have Helped Bring about Life on this Planet
We don’t think of Mani as a creator god, but the moon has helped our planet evolve the life we see today. First off, the moon is responsible for stabilizing our Earth’s axis. Without it, the axis would wobble mightily and we would experience vast changes in our temperature to the point where Earth would be inhospitable to life. Imagine the axis tilt so extreme that we are plunged into a terrible cold so no life would have been able to evolve.
Secondly, the tides the moon creates exposes the land to both air and water, forcing evolution to select for creatures that reside in these tidal areas that could thrive in both environments, thus setting the stage for land creatures.
Other Effects the Moon has on our Planet
The moon has also had the effect of slowing the rotation of our planet, thus lengthening our day to nearly 24 hours. Our planet has, in turn (excuse the pun), changed the rotation of the moon to 27.3 days, which is the same time as it takes to make a complete orbit around our Earth. This is why we always see the same face of the moon. Our planet’s rotation continues to slow because of the moon (due to tidal friction), but it would take 9 billion years for the moon to actually slow our planet to the moon’s orbital rate.
The moon is slowly moving away from our planet, and it was once much closer. We had more significant tides then and the pull on the Earth’s mantle may have set the state for plate tectonics.
The Gift of Metals
One cool thing to consider is that our moon has given us metals on and close to the surface. You see,we suspect the iron migrated to a small core.
scientists have modeled planet such as the Earth forming and when it cooled, all the metal should have migrated to the Earth’s core. But it hasn’t. That’s because when Theia hit the proto-Earth, it splattered much of its core across the Earth’s mantle. Our planet spewed a portion of our mantle to form the moon and thus we received the gift of metals from the moon’s earlier version. Our moon shows no iron in its rock —
How Mani has Affected Mankind
Without the moon, we wouldn’t have the tides that we do (we would have tides from the sun, but they would be minuscule.) We would have very dark nights every night; it’s unlikely we would’ve been able to hunt at night, or perhaps we would end up with greater night vision. We wouldn’t have eclipses, or obvious ways to divide our year into months (the word, “months,” is derived from “moon.”) We wouldn’t be able to advance technologically without metals. Think about it. What if we couldn’t get copper, tin, iron, and other metals easily?
I’m Not the Only One Waxing About Mani
Apparently I’m not the only one waxing about Mani. There’s a cool article in Witches and Pagans that deals with Mani. Mani being the brother of Sunna and the son of Mundefari, he’s one of the god that we know little about. He is pursued by the wolf, Hati, who will consume him on Ragnarok. The Witches and Pagans article mentions that he is the protector of abused children and also those who are emotionally distressed or suffer mental illness. I don’t know if that is UPG, current folklore, or if that is mentioned somewhere in legends. I haven’t done that much research about him, but I often feel comfort and joy looking up at the moon.
So, there you have it. My take on the moon. Hopefully he brings you as much joy as he brings me.