Form: Reply

—“You’re a Pagan?”— Dave Martel

In the sense that (a) man has invented many gods, and (b) there is one small set of laws (operations) governing the existential universe, then yes, I am a Pagan. In the sense that I and mine are from the warrior and merchant classes for over a thousand years, and place those value above those of christianity, I am a pagan.

In the sense that (c) I practice heavy investment in trust and forgiveness, (d) I pray only to one god, (e) I pray contemplatively, I am a christian. In the sense that we try to extend kinship love (forgiveness) to non-kin by extraordinary risk taking and forgiveness, I am decidedly christian. This is why christianity creates prosperity where it goes and islam poverty and judaism parasitism. We can separate these religions by which interpersonal relation with outgroups that they foster.

Western civilization has always been both pagan and christian, and has practiced deflationary aesthetics, theology, philosophy, law, and science.

I am a pagan, and a christian, because all of us are pagans by that measure. If we were not pagans we would conflate these disciplines as do the jews and the muslims.