6/10/2020

“Name Calling”

By Jim Culp

Yesterday marked a true milestone in my middle age. I was frolicking through Facebook, and reading jokes and articles while waiting for a huge download to finish. It seems there was a post that I joined in on commenting some three weeks ago, and someone copied and reposted the entire conversation as a post. The author referred to me as a “Satanist” and “someone who dabbles in witchcraft.”

I laughed at this accusation, and read a few of the comments that some folks added. It seems that since I am not a Christian, I am “of the devil.”

It’s funny, I haven’t heard that crap since I was 18, and told my Mom and Step-Father that I was no longer attending church. The pastor of our congregation had told them that “people who do not do the Lord’s will by attending church have fallen into the hands of the devil.”

It always made me wonder how anyone ever came up with the concept of a being such as God, who the bible (the King James Version, anyway) describes as “all knowing, all seeing, all powerful, and always everywhere. Even when I was a brainwashed youngster, I always wondered about this, but in private. I had heroes in my comic books such as Batman, Spiderman, and the Hulk; but none of them held up to the Christian God’s abilities. So there was Thor, who was a god. He was the son of Odin, an even more powerful god. Thor and Odin had temples, but they were for priests, not parishioners. The people had their own homes, and would have small statues of their gods in them. In real life, the same applied for the Romans, who had statues of Jupiter in their homes as well.

These comics were not allowed at my church, or my church school (yes, I went to both). “There are no other gods, except our God,” they would say.

When I started travelling around the world, I learned that every country and continent had a different version of “god” or “gods.” When I took a World Religion class in my first year of college, I was simply aghast at the plethora of gods that are worshipped every day on this planet we call Earth. Earthlings (as a whole, but separate) worship a whopping 2,500 gods and goddesses. Every religion claims that their god(s) are the real one. But I digress.

For one to be a “Satanist,” one must first believe in such a creature. A Satanist defines Satan as the “Infernal Duke of Hell” and “the Black Pope,” as well as hundreds of other names. He even had an official church, called the Church of Satan; founded in 1966 by Anton Levey, and serious hippie and anti-establishment watchdog. I read his book in 2004, called the “Satanic Bible.” It was as meaningless and mindless as most religious books are. I also read the “Lesser Keys of Solomon,” a massive tome of thousands of devils and demons that Solomon (the biblical son of King David, in the Christian Old Testament) controlled all of them at some time, because Jehovah’s (God) angel had given Solomon the keys to their “cages.” These were not physical cages made of iron or steel, but ethereal cages made of God’s power. This book is called “the Lemegeton” and it allowed Solomon to summon these creatures whenever he wished, by using the spells in the book. Yes, I know…that be some deep shit.

So you see... I know more about demons and devils that most Christians ever learn in their lives. Why? Because I read books, and I study things. I don’t blindly follow a religion because someone told me it was the way, the truth, and the life.

I don’t base my life on one belief (the way my parents did) because it’s not what the human brain was designed to do. The brain is a storage shed (memory), a computer (logical thinking), and a reasoner (cognitive thought). Whether that brain is the product of 200 million years of evolution, or the seed planted here my aliens, or the creation of a god; it is what separate you and me from thousands of other species of animals. A cat knows that its master will feed it at some point in a day, and knows it from repetition of actions. What it doesn’t know is that its master paid $17 for the bag of kitty chow that it eats. A great white shark can track a milliliter of blood in a huge area of water for miles, and find the bleeding animal that left it. But what it can’t do is add 2 plus 2, or balance a checkbook.

When I was accused of being a Satanist by some idiot, I laughed heartily. I am most surely a Pagan, but I don’t follow any path of religion or spirituality unless it makes 100% sense to me. So far, none have.

So…brand old Jim what you want. But I am the same old me. I’ve never said I am perfect, and I never told anyone that they can’t believe what they want to. I chose Paganism because it made sense to me, and it still does; every day of my life. The Earth is our home, and the more we get in touch with it, the more spiritual we become.

-Jim

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