Pagan Centered Podcast – Episode 80 – Former Pagan Fundie Speaks

2010
05.07

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1:49 How are Pagans led to become fundamentalist?
4:21 Bashing someone over the head with a teaching stick is a sub-optimal method of teaching
4:52 Pagan fundamentalists seem to be looking to vent their frustrations
5:26 Teachers being annoyed at spewing the Wicca 101 repeatedly.
6:10 Fundamentalists want intellectuals in their group so it can be thought of as all Pagan intellectuals are part of their clique
6:50 Using logic to downplay spiritual experiences as a method of combating fluff
7:13 Fundamentalists have essentially “shut down” and focused solely on terminating fluffdom via “education”
8:00 Being so focused on “weeding” that there are no spiritual discussions
8:24 Fundamentalists operate in packs because they lack confidence in their beliefs
9:23 Being a fundamentalist, one stops questioning themselves and starts thinking of themselves as authoritative.
9:55 Fundamentalists focus strictly on dogma of a religion and stress that anything not in dogma is not part of that religion.
10:38 Dogma doesn’t teach you all about a religion
11:15 The biggest blunder: applying mathematical logic to spiritual/religious discussion which is inherently illogical
12:42 Unreliability of Science
15:00 There will always be leaders and followers
15:18 Amber Rant: Fundamentalism is powered by fear
16:15 If you’re quiet, calm and laid back, people will overlook you as a leader in favor of assholes
17:25 A person looking for knowledge can only find fundamentalists?
18:55 The knowledgeable tend to avoid everyone else
20:30 The desire for acceptance within a social group.
21:38 Groupthink within a fundamentalist group as a tool for social survival
22:40 Testing for groupthink
24:00 Calling BS on anything and everything to attention whore
26:50 Pagan Fundamentalist belief that spiritual experiences cannot come of mundane events
27:35 Pagan Fundamentalists are aggressive because they feel it works
30:30 People desiring what is comfortable
32:20 Fundamentalists declaring uncomfortable beliefs to be fluffy
33:12 Recruiting techniques of Pagan Fundamentalists
34:39 Fundamentalists are spiritually stagnant
34:46 “I like to think outside the box and set it on fire”
35:05 Being spiritually closed-minded leads to a lack of spirituality, and essentially is being atheist.
36:10 Every fundamentalist has one fluffy belief
37:00 Fundamentalist intervention
38:00 How you can go fundamentalist without realizing it
41:30 Throw out the bullshit meter and replace it with a give-a-shit meter
42:20 Tolerance in moderation
42:50 It should not be surprising when someone outside your circle of friends says something intelligent.
46:10 What is the point of Pagan fundamentalism?
47:50 What’s the point of calling BS?
48:30 Fundamentalism helps us feel better about how bad the world is to us
53:25 Alternatives for learning that don’t involve fundamentalism