Talk:Earth religion

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This article was the subject of an educational assignment in 2013 Q1. Further details were available on the "Education Program:Ball State University/Introduction to Digital Literacies (2013 Q1)" page, which is now unavailable on the wiki.

The term I hear much more often than "Earth religion" is "Earth-based spirituality", especially when talking about Neopagan traditions. Is there any disagreement to moving this article to reflect the more common usage? romarin [talk ] 01:11, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Moving it to "New Age" doesn't make as much sense to me as moving it into "Neopaganism" which is more specifically encompassing of Nature-centered spirituality. In principle, this article could be retitled and reordered to be a page on "religion and nature" in a more general sense, which would include a listing of belief systems which are more Nature-centered or oriented. Addressing religious beliefs concerning nature has become a more well-known topic particularly with the popularity of 'being green' in the United States. As it stands now, this article is not of much use. 12.206.20.30 (talk) 20:37, 11 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

New age and paganism are NOT the same.. Paganism would be OLD age in that context. What is more.. NEO-paganism does not exist, it's a slag therm invented by other beliefsystems to ridiculize nature based religions. please don't use it ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.178.157.228 (talk) 07:37, 8 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Although I'm sure it could be expanded a bit and vastly improved in countless other ways, I really don't see anything at all wrong with just leaving it more or less a "stub" to help flesh out the term "Earth religion". Maybe it could be retitled "Earth religion and spirituality", but I think simply substituting it with "Earth Spirituality" is over-simplistic and would leave out some of the meaning. Although modern paganism may be seen at least to some extent as an outgrowth of the Theosophy/New Age movement and often overlaps with it, I think most people see them as mostly or entirely distinct from each other, thus they each deserve their own separate articles (man, I can remember back in 2005, there were TONS of articles about pagan/magical subjects on Wikipedia; massive deletion and/or merging has starkly curtailed it since then). Some pagan reconstructionist purists ridicule wicca for being mostly modern and artificial (either a new mixture of lots of preexisting beliefs or else just completely made-up), and some of those individuals (perhaps also from Thelema, Chaos magic*, et. al.) might attack earth-and-nature friendly religion just in order to advance their own personal idiosyncratic agenda (of unfettered egoism, will-to-power, fascism, or whatever). Nevertheless, in a certain way of thinking, ALL instances of paganism today are neopagan (except for those truly practicing family traditions); even the reconstructionists (because if the paleo-pagan faith had never completely died out, there would be no need to reconstruct it!). Shanoman (talk) 00:39, 5 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

* - I have nothing against those who practice these---or even satanism---provided they are NOT totalitarian, authoritarian, misanthropic, or force-initiating in ANY major way!

A group and I are working on this stub for a project. I have created an ethics page on my sandbox already but many of the sources are biased. I was wondering if this okay to have many biased sources. Considering that the section is discussing the ethical practices and beliefs of those who follow an Earth Religion I assume that it is okay to have biased sources. The sources are mostly either personal or by Wiccan groups.AaMartin2 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 20:44, 19 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We have finished working on this article for our class assignment. There is still quite a bit of work to be done on it especially in terms of sources. Another problem is that too much of it focuses on Wiccan than other Earth Religions. We added the following sections: Origins, Encompassed Religions, Popular Culture, Controversy/Criticism, and Ethics.AaMartin2 (talk) 14:03, 30 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Origins[edit]

In this section, I wanted to describe how earth religion started and got its origin. However, I was not able to locate any credible and reliable sources that delineates where Earth Religion started. And so instead, I focused on how some religions in the Earth religion category thought religion started. I also stated what attributes and circumstances led to the the beginning of religion in general. If anything could be added, it would be to find any credible information about how Earth Religion could have started. Blongenberger (talk) 20:24, 1 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You may be interested in Slavic mythology and Pre-Indo-European matrilineal societies where all the deities are earth-centered and documented. USchick (talk) 22:54, 4 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Encompassed Religions[edit]

This section was straightforward and compact, detailing various religions and beliefs that fall under the Earth Religion umbrella. I struggled with the length, struggled finding more to write about until I decided to simply go into further detail when describing the various religions that I mentioned. I found an academic article about the Konkomba of Northern Ghana, and I mentioned them in my section and briefly wrote about the importance of the earth to their culture, and the impact that it has on their people. JaredLynch (talk) 18:04, 1 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Popular Culture[edit]

This section discussed the presence of Earth Religion in movies and television shows. I hoped to find more credible sources on this issue, but it was to no avail. However, I did manage to find some interesting points of view on what is and is not considered Earth Religion in Popular Culture. For example, although I described Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed as being under the Earth Religion umbrella, I found that both shows focused more on Witchcraft and Wicca rather then broadening their reach to all Earth Religions.

Although, I feel that I have a good list of Earth Religion movies and television programs, I feel like my section is missing something. I believe that my section could use a paragraph or two discussing books, music, and art in Earth Religion. I tried to do this myself, but I couldn't find really credible sources. If anyone would be willing to help this page out, that would be stupendous! Happy wiki-ing!

Abuck18 (talk) 15:01, 31 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This section is focused on Western culture. In Eastern religion, popular culture is full of examples of earth-centered religion. USchick (talk) 00:03, 5 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Controversy/Criticism[edit]

This section was mainly focusing on outside judgments on Earth Religion and negative views about it. There is a short section about a certain view that followers of this religion hinder progress by overprotecting the environment. Another section included a couple of examples of people who followed the Earth Religion but had bad reputations. This section could be expanded to include more people who were disliked by the public, but I feel that this is a good start. Since many people have the common stereotype that people who believe in Earth Religions are bad people who worship the devil, there is a section about them being accused of Satanism, even though that is a completely different religion. Many of these criticisms stem from a lack of information about Earth Religion, and by describing these things, hopefully people will learn the truth. Kdallbsu (talk) 22:13, 1 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This is extremely POV. All around the world Earth religions are being practiced without any negative views whatsoever, and often it's practiced alongside with Christianity. USchick (talk) 00:09, 5 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Accusations of Satanism and Satanism Accusations as Religious Harassment[edit]

I edited the Accusations of Satanism section for objective wording. I created the Religious Harassment section because I think it is important in light of the sad, bloody history of the cultural cleansing of "earth religions" (tribal religions) from the west. Current accusations seem anachronistic and unjust given the history and historical oppressive juxtaposition of semitic sects to traditional religions. Although, I need to add citations after I finish exams. Please help to add sources.

Ethics[edit]

This section is mostly focused on Wiccan and Pagan ethics. Considering our assignment time frame we did not have the longest amount of time to find sources. Therefore, I only found Wiccan and Pagan sources. There should definitely be more reliable sources added and sources pertaining to other religions. I feel that the Honor section is lacking. I did incorporate multiple sources but I feel that there should be more information under that section. Also, the Threefold Law section, I think that there should be at least a short sentence just claiming its origin as I did for the Wiccan Rede.AaMartin2 (talk) 14:03, 30 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I could make good changes to that outdated code of Ethics very easily. For now I will just say that the truth always wins. :0Jsolebello (talk) 04:43, 26 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The main page has rules of ethics that are inadequate, and should be replaced as follows:

The page says this:

1. There is no divine judgement.

2. It is up to each individual to decide what is ethical.

3. Each individual is responsible for his or her actions.

4. Nature and all life should be honored.

5. There is no one correct path or religion, only that which fits best for each individual.

6. Moral doings are done for their own sake and not for a reward.

But, I think it should say something more like this:

1. Divine judgement more literally refers to the correction of human activity by gods and goddesses of humans, whatever they may end up looking like. However, you can trust that they exist, internally and externally, in varied and parallel sets of dimensions. The term 'gods' is also used in English to refer to masters of a subject. E.g., Michael Jordan is a god of the game of basketball. It is not an accurate use of the word.

2. Leaving a set of ethics up to an individual ends up showing how much Good and Evil that person has. A religion that seriously cares for the planet and the solar system would carry a code of ethics that contains rules of Love and honest use of the Truth.

3. A person is responsible for his or her actions after a certain age. This age is partially determined by influential adults and the person himself (or herself). Sometimes actions happen automatically, as a reaction in the subconscious, such as the heartbeat, some breathing and other bodily functions. In some diseases, one may twitch, or act out of character, automatically, and may need extra Love and understanding, as opposed to a more cold and strict, guilty judgement.

4. I do not believe that all life should be honored. Sometimes the justification for an idea is simply that an understandable, opposing word exists. In this case, it should be said that it is clear that dishonorable things exist in this realm.

5. This is covered in rule #2.

6. Moral actions are best done out of trust in the things and people that you love.

Jsolebello (talk) 13:57, 30 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Earth's circumference which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 23:03, 6 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I came to the first use of the word "rede" in the article. I looked on Wikipedia and discovered there is an article titled "rede". I used visual editing to attempt to link the "rede" in the current article to the "rede" article. However, I could only link to a "Rede disambiguation page."

I went to source editing and turned "rede" into a link. In the "explain your changes" box I wrote that I was experimenting to see if this would link to the actual "rede" article rather than to the "rede disambiguation page." I couldn't tell until I actually published the change whether it would link to the rede article rather than the rede disambiguation page.

When I published I found that it did link to the rede article rather than the disambiguation page, so I think it is a helpful and good edit.Greg Dahlen (talk) 10:14, 19 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 21 August 2023 and 8 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Leon2008cheng (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Ssatwik (talk) 23:17, 7 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]