Faff is a great word, I think it was [SilverFire] who got me using it. Anyway, during the course of writing Playgans I found that I had taken to swearing a great deal more than I used to. And decided it wasn't all that professional of me, so decided to try and stop. But I never made any promises...

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It has been brought to my attention, that I swear too much. So in a bid to raise the decorum of Playgans (hah) I shall substitute the word fuck for faff. But if you render me beyond annoyed and in to the realms of frothing at the mouth (again) I will turn the sky a shade of red and stun passing birds as my language flies through the air, you have been warned.

The reason for this delightful little excursion in to the realms of my madness was the following statement:

"I can link Paganism and Christianity" - fair enough you might say.
Their reasoning? It goes okay until it reaches the point where the argument basically comes down to "Christianity is basically paganism" and that's when I start faffing.

First of all, the term "pagan" these days refers to anyone that does not conform to mainstream religion. To a Christian it refers to the heathens (all other religions regardless of mainstream standing) who don't worship their God. (The ye olde terme used to be "Paganus" back in a time when "heathen" meant someone who lived on the heath, a country dweller to be precise, but the term got a bit mangled as time went by and it came to mean "that person who doesn't believe in our one true God...lets kill 'em!")
Heck, Christians call other Christians heathen based on which sect they fall under. So there is no way in Hell, you are going to convince a Christian, "Well you know what, darn those pagans sure are nice folks after all, lets ignore our own religion and agree with them they're the same as us." Nuhu. No, not happening. I mean you can get along, and both of you can learn to politely not bring up religion in terms of "my god is bigger than yours" but can you ever make them accept your religious beliefs are correct? Well, no. Their God doesn't let them.

And before you get started on me, just in case by some bizzaro chance you haven't worked this out by now, I am pagan, my religious beliefs are decidedly polytheist in their outlook. I have also studied Christian theology extensively (for fun) and was raised in a Calvinist/Presbyterian household. (Actually my father was raised by his Austrian Jewish grandmother who married an Irish Roman Catholic imigrant whos daughter was a Jehova's Witness who married a Protestant Presbyterian. So really defining his beliefs as raised by his Austrian Jewish grandmother who married an Irish Roman Catholic imigrant whos daughter was a Jehova's Witness who married a Protestant Presbyterian doesn't really work...) I also have numerous Christian friends from all walks of Christian faith (it's amazing how the One True Path ended up with so many different sects of faith) who are willing and able to answer most questions I throw at them.

It is entirely possible to respect another person's religion without trying to Force your own on to them, or vice versa. However if you come out with such utter bull*censored* such as "I can combine religions and end all the world conflicts, yay for me I am a genius!" you need to faff off right now.

You may have able to combine them, within the confines of your own head, but out here, in reality, it doesn't work.

"I can follow the Greek Pantheon without breaking the Ten Commandments"
Wow...how cool is that...*smack* But at the same time, entirely wrong.

The Commandments go as follows (which I wont type out in full, I do have a life beyond my computer screen):

-1. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt...
This commandment is about believing in the existence of God.


-2. You shall have no other gods besides Me...Do not make a sculpted image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above...
Wich pretty much renders the above claim impossible because you can't have more than one God and it has to be this one.

-3. You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord...
- This commandment is to never take the name of God in a vain oath. In Exodus, the text reads "in a vain oath" while in Deuteronomy it reads "in a false oath.
 
-4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy" (the version in Deuteronomy mentions "Keep" rather than "Remember")
Rather self explanatory.

-5. Honor your father and your mother...
This commandment is a development when compared to other laws of the Ancient East (for example, the Code of Hammurabi) that do not call for equal respect of the father and the mother.

-6. You shall not murder.
The Hebrew Bible makes a distinction between murdering and killing. Which is handy.

-7. You shall not commit adultery.
Again, if you can't understand this, you're on your own.

-8. You shall not steal.
This is sometimes interpreted as kidnapping, since there are other injunctions against stealing property in the Bible.

-9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Damn that's my plans ruined.

-10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house...
So your neighbour's got a fast looking donkey in the drive, and boy does that fence look good...really breaks up the desert. Too bad you don't have any, oh and you can't be jealous of him either. Smug *censored*.
In Exodus, the text reads "... neighbor's house, ... neighbor's wife, nor his manservant..." etc. while in Deuteronomy, "thy neighbor's wife, ... thy neighbor's house, his field" etc.

So bearing in mind, that God is the God and his wors is the law, and no other theologies or "words of Gods" may be accepted, how the faff then does your theory work with regards to Christianity?

In short, it doesn't.

(And no you f*cktard, it does not say that "God's name is Jealousy." His name is Yahweh and he is a jealous God. And that's not even the Christian God, that's the Jewish God. Now look you nearly made me swear.)

Your belief works fine with Pagan theology. There is a popular line "All Gods are One God." which means that no matter how many faces and names you give to them, they are all aspects of the one original origin of creation.
And I'm about to burn even more bridges, while still tap dancing accross them on gasoline soaked shoes, yes, that means as pagans we should accept the Christian God as existing.

If you believe that all Gods are one God, then God and Jesus are a part of your faith too. This side to God is as valid as any of the others you have chosen. And don't tell me you wont because of what the Christians did to non Christians. I bet you still worship Diana on a full moon and invoke Isis when you feel like it despite the fact that the Romans kicked *censored* out of the Egyptians when Octavian conquered Egypt after the death of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, you snivelling little hypocrit. Never mind that Wicca/modern paganism came from Celtic roots, Damara who? Yes thought as much.)

The idea of accepting Christianity works from the pagan point of view. (Much like how from Obi-Wan Kenobi's point of view Anakin Skywalker was dead, but to Luke he was very much alive...I don't know why I'm mentioning this...)
There is actually such a thing known as Critches-and no, you don't use them to walk. A Critch, is someone who accepts Christian doctrine to an extent, believes in the teachings of Jesus but still are classes as being pagan as they do believe that there is more than one God. They have merely chosen to invoke Jesus to the full moon party rather than Artemis. If you've ever heard it, you'll know what I mean when I say it's hard to keep a straight face when someone says "Jesus I invite you to partake of my cup"*
These people essentially practice earth worship, except of calling on the earth mother or horned god for example, they call on Jesus of the Holy Mother Mary.

I'll be honest and say the idea confuses me more than I care to admit. But maybe I just really don't see Jesus being cool with the Great Rite. Although he did hang around with prostitutes so maybe I'm wrong.

But flipping the coing again. Am I ever going to find a commited Christian who accepts my belief that their God and my God are the same? No.
Why? The Horned One (although my own God of choice is actuually the Green Man-in all his forms) is the deity that turned in to their Devil.
The Horned one is the deity that they turned into their Devil.

I really don't seem them suddenly going "ooooh sorry about that old chums...didn't mean to villify your God and make him in to the root of all Evil what."

But I don't hold it against them. Christian doctrine and ideaollogy tells them that their God is the only God. And more importantly the only correct God. Jesus said "I am the one True way." for them to turn around and admit the existence of the polytheistic masses means they are no longer Christian.

The most a devout Christian can do, is accept that although we are pagan, we are not at root, bad pepole. We're different, and we're more than likely not going to make it in to your heaven, but we're not Evil.

Just as we should accept that you have your beliefs and that we'll never convince you that really, we do worship your God in our own way, and that there is no Hell.

So in short, stop tryig to merge religions. It's all very well to accept the existence of other faiths, and that they can co-exist, but claiming you can merge every aspect only works for those who are already pagan like in their mindset. You haven't merged two religions, you have made a new one that isn't Christian but again pagan. Please, try to understand this. I know it's hard with your limited brain capacity, but please.

*sigh*...hey, I did it. I went the whole way through without saying fuck in full!...oh Fuck! >.<

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- Playgans