An Atheistic Pagan? O_o

[Kal Eldritch]

About a year ago I came to the conclusion that I do not believe deities, nor of the supernatural. This revelation was oddly freeing, considering the fact that I had tried desperately to believe in something for the better part of my teenage years. Looking back on my experiences, I realized that in trying to convince myself that I was a believer, I was essentially lying to myself.

So I am an atheist. But in trying to become a purely rational being, I found myself...empty. Even though I do not believe in the supernatural, I still feel spiritually satisfied when I read the Eddas.

I'm having trouble reconciling this need to be an AsatruaR with my newfound atheism, and though the mind can compartmentalize logically disparate elements, I feel as if I would be doing myself a disservice by leaving this oddly conjoined belief of mine unobserved, and I'd like to know your thoughts on the matter.  

[Iron Harlot]

It's not unheard of for there to be atheistic or nontheistic pagan paths. But I'm pretty sure being an Asatruar isn't compatible with being atheistic. At least not if I remember correctly.  

[Bastemhet]

Sovereign of Darkness

About a year ago I came to the conclusion that I do not believe deities, nor of the supernatural. This revelation was oddly freeing, considering the fact that I had tried desperately to believe in something for the better part of my teenage years. Looking back on my experiences, I realized that in trying to convince myself that I was a believer, I was essentially lying to myself.

So I am an atheist. But in trying to become a purely rational being, I found myself...empty. Even though I do not believe in the supernatural, I still feel spiritually satisfied when I read the Eddas.

I'm having trouble reconciling this need to be an AsatruaR with my newfound atheism, and though the mind can compartmentalize logically disparate elements, I feel as if I would be doing myself a disservice by leaving this oddly conjoined belief of mine unobserved, and I'd like to know your thoughts on the matter.

How do you envision yourself being AsatruaR without worshipping those gods? It may help to understand what it is you want, and whether this needs to be accomplished by religious means, or whether you can just simply enjoy the philosophy and poetry without considering yourself part of that religious group, nor beholden to their laws (if they have any, I don't know since I'm not familiar with it).  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

I would do a bit more research. To my knowledge being of the Asatruar is about worshiping the "Old Gods" of the Norse. Though...I do not believe that many of the Norse actively worshiped their gods in the way that we think of worship today.

I'm making an a** of myself.

Research I say! XD  

[Kal Eldritch]

Bastemhet

How do you envision yourself being AsatruaR without worshipping those gods? It may help to understand what it is you want, and whether this needs to be accomplished by religious means, or whether you can just simply enjoy the philosophy and poetry without considering yourself part of that religious group, nor beholden to their laws (if they have any, I don't know since I'm not familiar with it).

I don't really, thus the perplexity of the situation. It may just be a compulsion from a part of me that was used to going through the motions to feel a connection with something that never presented itself to me except in my dreams, but at the very least I think I need to find some comfortable middle ground. Maybe I'm just enamored with the anachronistic feel of it? In any case, more research is needed.

Thank you for your thoughts, everyone.  

[Seeky]

This statement may or may not make sense in relation to your question: I am not a Jew for the spiritual beliefs of Judiasm. I am a Jew for the rituals.

That is to say, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are coming up, and I will do several of the rituals--the apples in honey for a sweet year, the casting away of sins and making amends to those who I wronged this year. But I'm not doing it because Adonai is going to write me down as a good little girl and I won't get coal in my stocking this year. I do it because of my own beliefs.  

[Zoe Cakes]

I think I can understand where you are coming from. Personally, I feel the pull from pagan religions for a variety of reasons, but I have trouble taking belief in a god or gods seriously. I think this is because I feel that staking claim to a particular religious belief, is in effect disbelieving all others. Its just that, I can't ever know for sure which gods or goddesses exist, so why put so much emotional and physical energy worshipping one or another?

I have no faith, basically.  

[Synnthetika]

I know in Deo's thread she mentions an atheistic Asatruar. I don't know if this was a special circumstance or what the details are, so you may want to ask her about it. It seems a contradiction, but I would think it would be compatible.  

[Fiddlers Green]

An atheist can be of any orthopraxic religion with no trouble whatsoever. Such a religion is concerned with correct behavior, not correct belief, thus there is no conflict.
Orthodoxic religions on the other hand...
Mostly anecdotal, but the local Gohdi sorta shrugged it off. He mumbled a bit about the Aesir not really being so picky, and more concerned with how one acts, especially if confronted with them personally. Referenced an incident with Tyrfing, but it was sorta hard to make out, he was fairly well into his cups when I thought to ask.  

[Zoe Cakes]

Fiddlers Green

An atheist can be of any orthopraxic religion with no trouble whatsoever. Such a religion is concerned with correct behavior, not correct belief, thus there is no conflict.
Orthodoxic religions on the other hand...
Mostly anecdotal, but the local Gohdi sorta shrugged it off. He mumbled a bit about the Aesir not really being so picky, and more concerned with how one acts, especially if confronted with them personally. Referenced an incident with Tyrfing, but it was sorta hard to make out, he was fairly well into his cups when I thought to ask.

This is interesting, veeeery interesting.

I understand that you are quoting from personal experience, but do you think the main reference from one of the Eddas?  

[Maze]

If I remember the Havamal right - can't spell that word if I tried, apparently - there's no line that says "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" or even one that goes "Worship me."

In fact, I'm pretty sure it just goes "Dude, don't act like a d**k."

Oh, and has some stuff at the end that I never understood which are apparently spells, but I'm not very attuned to most things magic, so I guess that's hardly a surprise.

I haven't read everything - hah, who am I kidding, I probably barely read anything that is actually important for the Asatruar field of religion - but I was always of the impression that what Fiddler said is correct.

If you participate in the community and its practices in a useful manner, it doesn't really matter if you believe that gods exist or not.

I guess that's sort of like my faith in the afterlife, which can pretty much be summed up as "I'll see it when I get there" so I don't have to waste any energy on it in case it's not real. If it is, I'm gonna find out eventually. If it isn't, well, then I doubt I'll notice anytime soon, now will I?  

[Fiddlers Green]

Egil Skallagrimsson

This is interesting, veeeery interesting.

I understand that you are quoting from personal experience, but do you think the main reference from one of the Eddas?

Absolutely. Hervararkviða to be specific. Upon further inquiry, he went into a bit more detail about eagle's feathers and the tragedy of King Heidrek.  

[Dante Moonshadow]

Zoe Cakes

I think I can understand where you are coming from. Personally, I feel the pull from pagan religions for a variety of reasons, but I have trouble taking belief in a god or gods seriously. I think this is because I feel that staking claim to a particular religious belief, is in effect disbelieving all others. Its just that, I can't ever know for sure which gods or goddesses exist, so why put so much emotional and physical energy worshipping one or another?

I have no faith, basically.

I actually understand quite a bit where you're coming from. While I believe that there are multiple deities, I also hold a personal belief that we are to them much like ants and such are to us. That is, with the exception of the occasional oddball of the group (i.e. people who keep ant farms, or gods/goddesses that find mortals particularly interesting), so long as we don't go out of our way to bother them, they won't go out of their way to bother us.

And in terms of an afterlife/post-death belief, I find reincarnation to be perfectly rational. Once we die, our bodies are returned to the earth and essentially recycled into other life forms, who in turn die and are recycled...lather, rinse, repeat.  

[itslikeathing]

I realize that this is an older thread, but I understand where the OP is coming from. I, myself, was an atheistic, or nontheistic, Asatruar for a little while there. In fact, to this very day, I remain agnostic towards the gods.

As Fiddlers Green mentioned, Asatru is an orthopraxic religion rather than an orthodoxic one. This means that actions are more important than beliefs. What unites Asatruar is not identical theology, but rather the same practices. Being agnostic, I perform the rites and rituals of Heathenry primarily because they fulfill a spiritual and cultural need, for example.