From: wolfe@wolves.uucp (G. Wolfe Woodbury)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Technopaganism and paganism
Date: 14 Aug 92 06:25:50 GMT
Organization: Red Wolfe @ The Wolves Den
X-Md4-Signature: 4908fde7cac029474ec3a0d7ae52a547

{I said I had been thinking about it, so here are some thoughts.
				Wolfe                            }

Technopagans - some musings about creation.

Divinity is a tough thing to define.  The dictionaries and theologians
have a great time running around in circles and indicating the concept
without ever really being able to say "this is divinity" or "that is
divinity."

Thus, as is the case with most "religious" topics, it devolves on the
rational mind to determine for itself what constitutes divinity.

Divinity, to me, has always been involved with the concept of
creation.  The Divine is what ever creates.  Divinity is the power
andor purpose behind creation.

So, what, then, is creation?  Simply put, it is the process of making
something anew.  An essay recently in alt.pagan pointed to the Native
American divinities "coyote" and "fox" and their roles in the creation
of the world anew each day.  Without realizing it, humans create the
world anew each time they look around with awareness.

(I will be using the term "human" throughout this essay.  I do NOT
mean to limit the discussion to the terrestrial species Homo Sapiens.)

Thus all of us are divine, and all of us create by the process of our
lives.  However, it is usually quite difficult to hold this delightful
truth in day to day activities.  Some folks are quite good at it, and
they are always a joy to deal with and be around.  Some folks
absolutely deny this concept, and become quagmires of "realism" and
mundane cares.  Most folks fall somewhere in the middle, aware of
their divinity some of the time, and forgetful of it some of the time.

The pagan religions (of which there are many) tend to encourage the
awareness of self-creation and self-divinity.  Certain other religions
tend to deny the creative abilities of mere humans, and reserve
divinity for legendary beings.  (Note: this is different from using
mythological/metaphorical beings as examples of focii of creative
divine power.)

Given this relationship between creation, divinity and the pagan
religions, I note that certain classes of professions will tend to
attract folks who are in sympathy with the pagan religions.

Actually, let me restate that.  Within all professions, you will find
classes of folk who are generally more aware of their creations, and
of the divinity inherent in that process.  These folks will use
whatever tools or resources are available to them to enhance their
creation ability.

The word "tool" is an interesting one.  In its most basic form, it
refers to anything used to extend the capability of the human person.
It can take the form of a lever used to amplify human strength, it can
take the form of mathematics, to extend the symbolic developments of
the human mind, or it can take the form of art, to extend the reach of
human communications.

One of the ultimate tools that has been developed is, of course, the
computer.  The general purpose computer has been used to extend and
amplify human abilities in all directions and in all sorts of ways.

The folks who are in search of better tools to aid them in their acts
of creation will find that the computer is one of the most effective
tools that exists.  It is these "pagan sympathetic" minds that will
take computers and apply their use to all the myriad fields of human
endeavour.

It is also these folks that will first use the computers to help them
communicate with other similarly minded humans.  That is, these folks
are what has been called "the techno-pagans."

Technopagans can be distinguished from the more generic class of
"pagans (or neo-pagans)" by the characteristic of being able to pick
up any of the technologically based tools of the current era, and to
use and apply those tools to whatever problem they are working on at
the moment.

The category "technopagan" is also going to gather in some folks who
are not in the general category of "pagan."  (In this case, I want to
use "pagan" to refer to the "earth-centered" or "earth-aware" aspects
of "paganism.")

Thus, some technopagans are going to not be in total sympathy with the
other category of "pagan."  This is simply the unfortunate consequence
of the way that word values are assigned in English-based languages.

They will, generally, have an awareness of the numinous joy of being
creators.  And they may not use the term "divinity" to describe it.

I feel that quite a number of them (the technopagans) are also the
sort of folks who are able to take the adaptability they have for
tools and be adaptable in other categories of endeavour.

It should be noted, also, that simply being able to take the computer
as a tool and apply it to a given task is not a sufficient definition
of technopagan.  It is more evidenced in the ability to use any tool
to help "solve" whatever problem is at hand.  The key is the attitude
towards creation.

-- 
G. Wolfe Woodbury @ The Wolves Den UNIX, Durham NC         [use the maps!]
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Newsgroups: alt.pagan