Sunday, November 4, 2007

Episode #8

Ever had occasion to correct the misinformed views of others about your religion and wound up utterly botching it? Philosophy can help! In this episode we'll talk a bit about apologetics--the prodigy of philosophy and theology--and why its important to Pagans, even those in the closet.

Download the episode here: http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebroomcloset/TBC20071103.mp3

Music by Saharadja and Wazabe provided by the Podsafe Music Network:
http://music.podshow.com/

As promised, here's a couple of links to some great resources and questions for the Pagan apologist:
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2003/0305bt.asp
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=ukgb2&c=words&id=11993

Bright Blessings!
~LitheWolf

PS: Sorry that this episode is a day late. My wireless internet went down last night.
Posted by LitheWolf at 5:28 PM
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5 comments:

Coty said...

Great episode, a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed understanding apologetics (which I really had little knowledge of before) and the resources were great!

November 21, 2007 7:02 PM
LitheWolf said...

Thanks, Coty! I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

November 24, 2007 5:29 PM
Fortuna said...

Hello Lithewolf, I really wanted to let you know how much I loved this episode of your podcast. I immediately downloaded the last five episodes and have been enjoying them on my way to work each morning. Particularly in this episode when you said, "an unexamined religion is not worth practising" as a parallel to Socrates's saying on life, blew my mind. It was all the more relevant to me as I found myself after six years of a relatively unquestioning pursuit of all I could acquire on Paganism, to become disillusioned with the inaccuracies, contradictions and generally suspicious aspects of Wicca. Your episode really challenged me to think about my religion, and while I have years (if not lifetimes) of thinking ahead of me, I think my practice is going to be all the better for it.
I await your next episode with bated breath!

December 4, 2007 4:12 AM
Nathan said...

Thank you Lithewolf.

This episode was my introduction to your cast. I find your style VERY nice. You are easy to listen to, and very informative.

Brightest Blessings, and PLEASE keep up the cast.

December 4, 2007 2:52 PM
LitheWolf said...

Fortuna: Thank you so much! I'm glad that you got something out of the episode. It's true that there are a lot of innaccuracies in the pop version of Wiccan history. A good portion of the accounts of how our religion came about is more "modern myth" than fact. I've heard some interesting arguments from those who still claim that Wicca is the revived religion of a once universal European witch cult (a la Murray) but remain unconvinced of this myself. I personally find the claims that Wicca is really decended from a neolithic era religion even less convincing--unless you want to claim that all current religions are decended in some way from those of more ancient cultures. I accept it as a modern, more-or-less entirely invented religion. A lot of people seem to feel that there is little merit in practicing a religion like the one I've just described. They want the history; the ancient, mythic origins and super-secret rituals in the dark. It's not wrong to want those things from a religion, it's just a question of what is most important to you in your religious and spiritual developement. The idea that an old man and some of his friends made up the religion that I practice about seventy years ago doesn't bother me. All religions are "man-made." It's the interaction with the Divine and the spiritual fulfillment that I get from practicing Wicca that is most important to me. So, I take many of the more deeply occult practices and "superstitions" with a grain of salt. Don't get me wrong, I still find these things to be very useful and the poetry of them speaks to me. I just feel that much of it is far more open to interpretation that some hardcore occultists seem to think. Once again though it all comes down to what is most important to you. I know one or two people who could never become involved in a religion like Wicca--or any religion for that matter--precisely because of this issue. "Accuracy" and "truth" matters too much to them. I look at Wicca and I see quite a lot of truth, but that's me. Certainly the more mythical beginnings of Wicca, which were pushed so hard for so many years, have damaged our credibility with scientific, historical, and other religious communities. It's not that we took liberties with the story of our origins that other religions haven't, but rather that our religion is young enough for modern scholars to find the innaccuracies and thoroughly debunk them. But I'm rambling...
I'm glad that you found what I had to say helpful and hope that I can keep producing episodes that interest you.

Nathan: Thank you! I'm glad that you're enjoying the show. It's always good to know that I've produced something that people enjoy.

Bright Blessings!

December 7, 2007 12:02 PM

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