I’ve added some basic rules for the community. They can be viewed on the sidebar. Mainly I hope to encourage some nuanced discussion.
I’d like another mod or two. If interested , send me a DM with your timezone or general part of the world and any experience you have modding internet communities or background in interfaith spaces.
Feel free to add more in the comments.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46021736
April 16, 2026
Pope Leo XIV says the world is “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” in the latest escalation of his feud with Donald Trump.
The pontiff, on a trip to Cameroon, urged a “decisive change of course” and denounced leaders who use #religion as a basis to justify war.
“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” Leo said.
“They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education, and restoration are nowhere to be found,” he went on, further condemning what he described as “an endless cycle of destabilization and death.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-leo-xiv-trashes-bloodthirsty-tyrants-after-attacks-from-trump/Open linkView original on lemmy.ml
Los no creyentes ya son mayoría en España por primera vez en siglos, según el Barómetro sobre Religión y Creencias
Según esa encuesta, el público objetivo de la religión en España es:
https://cordopolis.eldiario.es/cordoba-hoy/sociedad/catolicismo-pierde-historica-hegemonia-resiste-andalucia_1_12895719.htmlOpen linkView original on piefed.social“What the fuck has that got to do with ANYTHING INTERESTING?” -Richard Dawkins
I was listening to Alex O’Conner’s “Within Reason” Podcast while I completed a ten hour drive last week. A great Podcast to listen to if you’re interested in casual philosophy, religion, and okay science (I’ve been a fan for a long time Alex but I’m not convinced you nor I are qualified to really speak on “science”).
I let it play through the one’s I queued up because I wanted to listen to Justin Sledge from Esoterica talk about YWHW and then the Demiurge, then it played an older episode with Richard Dawkins. Honestly, an interesting podcast just from a history of atheism perspective. Dickhead Dawkins is an important figure in the atheist movement and has contributed greatly to atheist discourse and, regrettably, memes.
I’m generally not interested in the mind of a man who starts off a discussion equating “religion” to “wokeism” because “wokeism” isn’t a word used by someone wanting to have a good faith discussion about something they don’t like or don’t understand, but that realization made me want to know more about him because I think he is the quintessential disenchanted man.
##Enchanted versus Disenchanted world views
I have been reading “Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed” by Wouter Hanegraaff to sort of give me a better framework for interpreting occultism or “Western Esoterica” as is apparently the more correct idea. And one of the frameworks that really sings to me is the idea of the Enchanted World. In short, through most all of human history, religion, philosophy, and science have been very powerfully intertwined. For the most part this was due to necessity. We don’t have enough answers in any one “field” to really constitute it being a separate field. So, we keep them combined and inseparable for millennia.
To an enchanted person, they will always see the connection between this material world, their soul, and the great Absolute (whatever that is be it god/the Goddess/Flying Spaghetti Monster) and this makes everything feel important and connected. There is beauty in the smallest parts of life because that is the goddess at work. There are lessons in mundane emotions because you are one with the universe so no emotion is too big. It’s the world of whimsy and love that truly I think I want to suspend my disbelief and live in.
Yet there is a foil, the disenchanted man doesn’t see this deep connection with everything and only sees what is completely rational. If there isn’t a scientific field studying it, then it’s Not anything interesting and probably needs to go away.
Here’s a quick Wikipedia blurb on this
The history of the ideas is pretty interesting too. Hanegraaf believes this world view is new and is what allowed science to take off in the 1600’s. By separating the Natural Sciences from the questions of the soul and god, scientists were able to exist parallel too and mostly independent of gods and the oppressive church. No longer do we have to kill a man for making a scientific discovery that, because it proves old ideas wrong, is a heresy. Now you are simply learning the exact mechanisms through which god made things how they are! You will no longer be burned for thinking humans are made up of tiny humans because you don’t understand atoms!
Then as science advanced, we started to see people like Dawkins appear who have no attachment to the metaphysical realms of religion at all. You can now live your life happy with all the answers of science and psychology to make yourself feel better. No longer do you need the rituals of a god or your own musings to answer any tough questions. At the very least you can get some ideas on what to think or, realistically, enough evidence to gaslight people on your opinion as truth instead of real research.
Truly, that was the story that triggered this in me. Alex O’connor has told the story a few times now on his Podcast but the most recent telling is what triggered this whole thought bubble. Its an interview with Emily Gureshi-Hurst an Atheist theologian and its such a good Richard Dawkins quote because it exemplifies my frustration with him and the new atheist movement that I’ve had the entire time (16 years!) I have been an atheist. The story goes
“I had this conversation with Richard Dawkins in a car Park once, after I told him on this podcast that I didn’t think his treatment of Thomas Aquinas five ways was particularly comprehensive being all of two pages. And he asked me at this event, like, well, what would you have had me do? And I said, well, you know, you treated all kinds of causation as if they’re one thing. And he said, well, do you think there are different kinds of causation? I said, yeah, I think so. And he asked me to explain. So as best I could in about 30 seconds, tried to explain hierarchical and like linear causation, to which he interrupted the last sentence of my little speech by saying, I remember the exact words, what the fuck has that got to do with anything interesting? Thank God I’m not a theologian.” -Alex O’Connor
What a boring take. It’s just not interesting to talk about theology says THE FOREMOST PROMINENT FIGURE IN THE RELIGIOUS DEBATE SCENE!
I can’t imagine dedicating such a large portion of my life and free time to “debating” people on an Idea that I fundamentally don’t find interesting. His entire motivation was wanting to be the smartest person in the room. He only argued against the existence of god from strictly his evolutionary biology background. He wanted the spectacle of standing up to a christian orthodoxy. He helped set the standard that anyone can easily clown on even the best trained apologeticicist by simply, not reading their stupid book.
And that’s such a boring way to engage with religion and then the world.
Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a very useful way to remove one’s self from a debate with a theist. It is such a debilitating move to simply ask why I should consider the bible/quran/torah is truth. Why should I even consider it as a history book? At best in can be another “The Illiad” but we don’t take that as gospel. Dropping a holy text to the level of a Homeric Epic I think is fair but sweeps the feet of any arguments for god they have and then you can bully them for not having faith in their god if they have to use outside evidence for their claims. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!
There is a very toxic sub current to this mindset though. This virulent search for truth in a “fuck your feelings” mindset has always lead to harassment of anyone deemed outside of a simple understanding of “basic biology”. Nu-Athiests have always been bigots because it “biologically doesn’t make sense to be gay” or “you can’t change your biological gender” and I’ve always thought they were annoying.
Imagine wanting to understand the world and those who inhabit it, but you completely reject the concept of “feelings” because they “aren’t real.”
Feelings, my friends, are real. They are how we experience the world and our place within it.
Feelings, psychological responses, brain chemistry, neurological rewiring, etc, etc. is the enchanted world. Allowing your emotions to be felt and your world view to be open to interpretation. To write symbolic poetry in your mind to put into words the feelings you have about this material plane. That is where the enchanted world of the divine exists.
I really do think that is the cross roads for religion and spiritualism. I personally believe that’s where it stops, the mind.
All magick exists in that it is simply an expression of our intentions. It is a psychological trick to make us be the change we want to see happen. You casting a spell is you telling your subconcious to get into gear working towards that goal.
See my blog post here and also here for more.
And I know what that means for that whole shtick about the bible. It means we have to acknowledge people really do have strong feelings about the bible and that there is something more than pure facts and logic that is needed when engaging on those topics. It means there is some similar line between “wokeism” and “religion” but that that isn’t inherently evidence against it but a necessity for nuance in such discussions.
I am saying that, while useful for “winning” debates, Dawkins disenchantment is not conducive to a productive conversation.
Feelings are the driving force of humanity. At the core of all human action there is an emotion we are reacting too and it is our feelings we are trusting to guide those feelings. Even if we have a feeling to trust “rationalism” above emotions, it is still some inherent emotion that is causing such an attachment.
There are things in this world we have yet to understand and we may never understand. I think we have done the world a disservice in academia by ignoring the emotional angle for things in Dawkins time and we’re still seeing the repercussions of “Toxic Rationalism” in thought. Modern scholars are doing much better considering this and I think the increase in intersectionality has been a massive blessing to the Liberal Arts and even the Sciences.
It’s unfortunate that this old problem has been solved, but the conservative old guard has turned this Academic problem into a Political one. People like Dawkins who are wrong and no longer contributing to the discussions in a good faith manner end up as fuel for the censorship of good scholarship under our new authoritarian regimes.
Dawkins first made the claim that something simply wasn’t interesting, which is his right to not be interested, but then he added to an ideology that hurts people. That second sin is much much harder to forgive.
Reseña y reflexión desde una perspectiva cristiana sobre el último libro de Javier Cercas, relato en el que ese autor, desde la increencia, indaga en el cristianismo.
https://www.pensamientoprotestante.com/2025/12/javier-cercas-el-loco-de-dios-en-el-fin.html?m=1Open linkView original on chachara.clubcross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/33707780
My altar is less aesthetically pleasing than mosts I have seen posted on the Tumblrs and Instagrams of the world. It has a vibe to it that I enjoy.
It is based vaguely on the description in Oberron Zell-Ravenloft’s “Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard” in that it has a representative of all four elements(earth, water, wind, fire) and it has a higher and lower teir to represent our higher and lower self. The shelf that separates the two is a black box that I have painted with symbols that are important to me. One is the symbol for the demon king Zagan (who’s name I stole to give to my cat Zagan) and the other is a Triquetra a symbol for unity and interconnectedness, something I value in myself and society. I painted them with silver paint which I just thought looks cool and I wear a lot of silver but the symbolism of silver in occultism is a connection to feminine energies and the moon.
Things to include by Element
Earth - rocks (duh). I have Labradorite. It’s my favorite semi-precious gemstone because it’s pretty, but it’s hard to find the parts that are pretty. You need the right light and angle to find the shiny beauty spots. It’s a reminder that beauty is always visible but not always immediately. One must look to find beauty in all things because all things are beautiful.
Water - Water (duh). I have a few vials of water on my altar. One is a jar of river water from my home town that I collected after a flood. The other is water from Lake Superior I collected on vacation there where I met some kindly witches collecting stones on the beach (like I was doing). It is equal parts a reminder of good times and the fluidity of time. Much like the river flows and the lake washes new stones onto the beach, so to does time flow and things change. Not always for the better, but we must carry on to find new beauty.
Air - Bells and Feathers. I have bells from all over that I’ve thrifted over the years. They make all kinds of chimes some deep, some light, some far too pingy and I get annoyed having to move them, but all of them are only making noise for a moment and that moment is long enough to drastically change my mindset. These are often actual tools as opposed to purely symbolic meditations. Much like Pavlov making dogs think of food, I use bells to pull myself out of whatever mundane drudgery I am experiencing and immerse myself in meditation. Although, to be honest, I am mostly using a meditation app with a gong sound more than bells.
The feathers I’ve collected from various places and types of birds (none I killed but many were deceased). Birds are wonderful symbols of freedom and letting go. View it as a symbol for that. Let your mind be free like the bird is free to explore and travel where it pleases. Follow a bird around one day. It’s a wonderful type of meditation.
Fire - Candles and Incense. Candles and incense are such an essential aspect of modern witchcraft and occultism that you can find lists of meanings and uses for certain colors and scents all over. Since I’m an atheist, I know it doesn’t matter and gave myself meaning and uses. Hell, I “summoned a demon” using battery powered tea lights and a essential oil diffuser because my dorm banned candles. So I have three preferred candle colors: red, green, purple. When I am working, I burn a red candle. When I am meditatating, a green candle (placed on the higher shelf of the altar). When I am relaxing, the purple candle.
Why those colors? I really like the color red and the other two were on sale at Hobby Lobby so I bought a bunch. The color symbolism is arbitrary to me. You can follow the traditional standards of chakra candles if you so wish. Or maybe certain colors remind you of certain contexts you wish to evoke. In a way, red does good as a working color because my childhood school’s colors were always red and some others. So I associate red with focus and academic work.
Things to Include by meaning (CW: Dead Animal Mention)
This sorta stuff really gives you and excuse to collect knick-knacks and baubles of all sorts. I enjoy collecting carved semi-precious stone statues, sexual idols, and animal remains.
The stone statues I collect are pretty boring. I was gifted a Blood stone skull by a dear friend and I already had a ceramic skull paper weight my dad had given me as a child from his own days of collecting haunted looking objects (he was a Cathoilic not an occultist, but he liked having props in front of his Dungeons and Dragons screen while Dungeon Mastering). So now I collect well done stone skulls.
The sexual idols kinda started as a bit. I also 3D print a lot and I love printing a penis shaped character called Ding Ding to test out calibrations, colors, and new printers. So my house is covered in little penis guys and some naturally ended up on all my altars. Then years later, my fiance and I were at a rock and gem show where someone was selling female bodies with an uncomfortable spine curvature, fine tits, and a ridiculous ass. So we bought some of those in various stones since we must balance feminine and masculine energies to achieve peak post-gender god like status as it were.
Animal remains was a conflicting call for me. I found a really well cleaned and reconstructed Cyote skull at a different rock and gem show early on in my altar building days. However, I didn’t know if I wanted to include it because it felt like I was evoking animal sacrifice imagry into my altar. And that is a fair read on my altar but not what I personally feel. For me its a Stoic reminder of our own mortality. I will die just as Mr. Bones died. I also have the preserved jarred body of a baby albino snake I bought at a reptile show. That one had similar symbolism too it but with the added allussion to the alchemical symbol of the ouroboros. Maybe the snake means more in that the cycle will end one day with death. Maybe it’s just a cool morbid knick-knack.
You can really include whatever brings you back to a sense of mindful reflections is the point. I have a friend who’s altar is exclusively for her crafted stuff like little statues and fairy homes. And what is a Christmas village or a Model Train table but an altar like zen garden with tiny people and tiny trains?
I may even be convinced of a digital altar like this one where I am simply meditating on my own actions publicly!
What is an Altar to me
My altar is a place for ritual. It’s a grounding space for me that I use to take me out of whatever mindset I’m in and enter into an appropriate one. It’s my portal into my own psyche and my own place of control. It is also we’re I keep reminders of things dear to me. Friends from years past. Memories of old versions of myself. Reminders that life is fluid and that I grow.
