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DISCLAIMIER: It is possible for you to disagree but no side would be wrong. Beliefs are called beliefs for a reason and shouldn't be considered fluff or even deemed as such unless disproven by science and defies the laws of nature. Claiming one's beliefs as fluffy and wrong is just as easily claiming yours the same way. They are both beliefs after all. ;)]
I have been studying the occult for a few years now, but I have been practicing it my entire life. Everything from prayers to chants and more! Throughout my life, I have learned to walk alone with my beliefs as they are personal. Even to this day, my beliefs change over certain topics. That is only natural as we learn new stuff on different topics and develop our own personal ideology throughout life (some people become stuck xD). I am still looking for what best suits and makes sense to me. I guess we all are in a way without knowing it. Interesting, aye?
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I do not follow any particular religion. I have grown to believe that religion is a thing of structure of someone's morality and life.
I am actually taking a new approach into discovering my beliefs. My beliefs venture into utilizing imagery of popular culture that are personal to me as Thought Forms and Godforms. I believe that all deities were created by humans, but am open to other beliefs as we cannot truly know beyond our interpretations and understanding of the universe. This, from my understanding, is PCP. PCP is known as Pop Culture Paganism.
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These beliefs residing within the PCP are very personal. Usually people get their beliefs from the mordern culture and society of the world. The most common assumption of PCP is that the characters of some made up fantasy world are "brought to life" and are most likely fake. The truth is that these characters do have their origins from various roots in other cultures that were used as inspiration when building such characters. Of course, there will always be characters that do not have its origins from other cultures but gods and goddesses do have to start somewhere.
Though people get them from video games or even TV shows, that does not deem them as fake or even possibly fluff. Something fake or fluff would be something in which someone would defy the laws of nature without some scientific tool or use. Beliefs in a god or goddess, no matter where they originate, are not and shouldn't be assumed as fake or fluff. That is illogical to say. Especially when you have your own beliefs in a god or goddess. You can disagree, but you cannot deem another's belief as fake without science being able to deem such as impossible.
To give an example of such origins.....
The Greeks and Romans got their gods and goddesses from various beliefs around the world. Especially from those that were Egygtain. They would of been considered "pop culture". Their beliefs have origins to something else as those origins has its own origins till we get to the point when we do not know if these deities were simply made up or has always been there.
This is much like with PCP. The gods and goddesses, whom are thought to be thoughtforms and godforms, originated from stuff in the mordern day society rather it be books, stories, or even video games. Even those things have their origins from various cultures used for inspiration and motivation when coming up with such ideas.
Beliefs, from across the globe, have came from speculation, myths, stories, society, the individual's perspective of things, and so much more. What's so new and bad about such a thing today? PCP has always existed.
The gods and goddesses, of those pertaining to the PCP, are also known as thoughtforms and godforms. I do believe that all gods and goddesses are considered thoughtforms at one point, but, as time goes on, they eventually get viewed differently as if they do exist rather you believe in them or not. We cannot deem them as fact. Every deity originates from somewhere somehow and we do not exactly know for sure because it is based on our person interpretations and understanding of the universe. It cannot go beyond that. It is best to conclude that all deities originate as a thoughtform, in my opinion. Especially in today's society since we have driven away from the origins of such beliefs. At one point, everything is considered "pop culture".
What is new and pop culture today will become old and traditional as time goes on while the old fades away but changes over the centuries.
Many people have this huge assumption that Pop Culture Paganism is a fluffy ideal but there is nothing suggesting that it is fluff. You can say that people who follow PCP believe in unicorns and all that but a majority of cultures do. Psh! The Native Americans believed in bigfoot. There are even ancient ruins with cave drawings suggesting that there is some type of human creature that lives in the sea. Various asian cultures had myths and legends of dragons! They rely on the myths and stories. Every god or goddess, as far as I am aware, has some sort of background story/myth to them. Perhaps someone made stories of such and people started viewing them as deities from then on out. People say that religions are based on myths. In my opinion, that is not entirely true. Religion can make myths of their own and decide to base it on the stories the followers or someone else created.
If one treated a vampire, unicorn, or whatever real today then that wouldn't be considered a culture or paganism at all. That would be considered stupidity. Some more than others. There may be a few exceptions though. I don't think it is fully illogical to think a creature from myth never existed. Organisms, on the Earth, evolve and adapt. There is no telling what has changed. Science is subjective to change as new theories and experiments come into play.
In fact, as I think about it, all religions could be considered pop culture. Religion changes over history. They are probably not exactly original and are not the same as hundreds of years ago. I personally find it illogical for a religion to even maintain its original-full on beliefs as those who originally did practice it died out. Religions are like rumors. They start off original but, as time moves on and they spread, they become mistold and misinterpreted until a point where no one, but a few people, cares anymore. No offense to anyone, but Christianity is a mere example of such. My personal opinion is that religion is used as a structure of someone's or a society's morality and life.
An example of religion or culture changing could possibly be sacrifises. It use to be viewed morally good to do and perform sacrifices, but in today's society it is viewed morally wrong. Cultures and religions that use to practice sacrifices do not anymore. This could be because religion also follows society and laws could potentially restrict certain practices which may cause them to decease over time and become misinterpreted over the years since there is not as many people practicing it.
Plus religion is not always accurate. You can have some things spoken in religion and it isn't possible at all. Is it just myth or just another way of showing how the planet has changed? We don't know. Everything from talking snakes to dragons and so on. Then again... It is a belief. Belief has no accuracy.
This is what Star.Child had to say about the paragraph above:
"Now that I agree with. I'm thinking like Wicca being a young one trying to keep the old ways going. But as we, and science, and our understanding of how things work, grow and kind of redesign things, the new has to step it up. But things like believing one can turn into vampires and werewolves have to be corrected. Those are stories of old that came from lack of knowledge of what happens to dead bodies. Then when people added ''explanations'' and stories of their fears, it turned them into nonsense.
I truly believe we got ''help'' from outsiders, aliens you might say, that have been watching and guiding, and even fighting over us (Chariot of Gods being 2 species fighting each other right in front of us!) Being so advanced, it would be possible that people thought them gods, who can bring dead back to life, separate waters for people to escape, even walking on water, etc.. Of course we have to make statues to represent them, and then religion follows. Then more to correct the beliefs, then more and more..I also believe that if all who want this planet fixed, so all could contribute and no one would be poor, and all would have unconditional love, we could do it. But it won't happen because of greed and hate.
I believe in a common energy where we all came from, and will be returning to. But each of us is a part of that energy, that consciousness that is us combined. If you consider it a body, hate is the disease. So is greed. Love is Law for a reason. It is the cure of everything. But the understanding of that love escapes us when our bodies need food and water, and the money it takes to do so. Then its more when we need information, which requires sources like internet and education just to get it. And houses to live in, people to build them; the list goes on and on. And then the question of spirituality comes. Why am I here? What is my purpose? Why does my body hurt just to grow old? On and on I am ranting. Do you think I'm crazy yet? lol
I think in what you're doing is your need to know, to want to know, where it all came from, where we came from, and how we got here from all the beliefs down to the beginning of them. I think its great your approach to find out. Blessings to you, my friend.." ~ Star.Child
I do believe that it is plausible and possible for us to have gotten help from outsiders. We have many mysterious structures that have been built yet we do not know how. It is one of the many mysteries of life. I do not see why it wouldn't be possible for such a thing to happen. Even humans are advancing towards those goals with science and technology. There are billions of planets and other solar systems out there. We can't possibly be alone. Yes, love is a law and not a moral view. That is my opinion. Though it does make me wonder how it could be when we could just easily live in a society that thinks the opposite of what we do. Perhaps religion is one of the things we use to create purpose in our lives and give us reason.
This has led me to believe that all gods and goddesses orginated from the personal ideals of humans. We do not know what is beyond our personal interpretations and understandings of the universe. We only know what we think we know. If we knew anything beyond us then that destroys the purpose of belief and faith.
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Religion is possibly a way to give someone and a society moral structure because there is no universal moral structure at all! Let me explain why....
The cosmos (all of our personal universes together) holds no moral truth.
If the universe held moral truths then what we consider right or wrong could not be subjective. No questions asked. We wouldn't have vast religions and cultures that believe in different stuff and moral values. We will all be one culture. Moral truths are possibly like laws that people in that culture have to follow.
Humans are imperfect. How can we assume that there are moral "truths" if we do not "truly" know? Quote truths and truly. Sure, you can suggest written scriptures but even those could be fake and hold the views of only the person or the society/government whom has written such text.
Ex: People have different moral views. Sure, someone might do something you think is bad but that is what they morally view as right even though you may morally view it as wrong. It is like different forms of government and the different laws countries abide by. Think of the king, royal subjects, and other people like the colonists. The colonists and other royal subjects did not think that the King was absolute compared to people who did. Even the loyalists thought it was morally wrong to break away from England were as the patriots thought otherwise. You can even go in with politics if you want to go deeper into different scenarios.
When people try to use love as an excuse for a moral truth then they are not standing behind truth and giving false information. Love is an instinct. We are all going to love something no matter what. We cannot help to what or whom we are attracted too. We just do. Love is love. It is a law. The universe (or nature) holds laws that we follow. Laws and morality aren't the same.
Love couldn't be a moral truth because it is also subjective. Is love truly good if someone loves someone just for their money, sex, or any other economic value? In my opinion, no. That right there is subjective. It is still love but nothing holding any moral truth.
Moral views also change over time. History will prove this.
Ex: Again....... Sacrifices. It use to be morally viewed as good to perform and do human sacrifices for a god or a goddess but now it is morally viewed as bad even in cultures that use to perform such deeds. You can also go into details about how governments are formed through the force theory, evolutionary theory. divine theory, and social contract theory to farther prove this. @
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Overall, I hope this clears up about some things about Pop Culture Paganism and things pertaining to my beliefs. I view every religion as pop culture at one point and that all deities are man made. We do not really know. Beliefs and science are subjective to change and never stay original. Beliefs are like rumors. They never carry out there original states. Even religions could still be consider pop culture as they change overtime. The new and pop culture will eventually become old and traditional as the old fades away and changes.