Religious Tolerance . Org

[Aakosir]

I researched Buddhism because of that thread and so I could make sure I had a few beliefs correct for a college discussion. I found a very nice, long and in depth page on religioustolernace.org.

Is this a reliable site? Does anyone have any refutes about it?

The only thing I do not like is how they group Wicca with Witchcraft, and vice versa...  

[Aakosir]

Okay. Now that I am skimming over some of the other sections a little red flag went up. They defined Wicca as a Neo-pagan, earth-centered religion. Does anyone else see what I do? Wicca is not earth-centered, but fertility-centered.

Let's see what else I can find that is wrong...

Also, isn't the Rede just advice? Because here they say "Their main rule of behavior is the Wiccan Rede which forbids them from harming people, including themselves, except in some cases of self-defense." like it is a law...  

[Aakosir]

Oh my gods! I'm scrapping this website!

Quote:

Wicca is a very decentralized religion; many Wiccans develop their own beliefs, rituals, and other practices. The latter are often not known outside the solitary practitioner or Wiccan coven. So we describe the beliefs and practices that most Wiccans hold in common

Seriously!?  

[Chieftain Twilight]

Aakosir

Oh my gods! I'm scrapping this website!

Quote:

Wicca is a very decentralized religion; many Wiccans develop their own beliefs, rituals, and other practices. The latter are often not known outside the solitary practitioner or Wiccan coven. So we describe the beliefs and practices that most Wiccans hold in common

Seriously!?

sounds like a wikipedia article on it. o.O;  

[rmcdra]

Yeah their section on Gnosticism makes me groan.

It's hit or miss with Religious tolerance.org. I tend to avoid it or double check things I read off of there.  

[Aakosir]

I think I'm just going to forget the site even exists... I hate Wikipedia and sites like it.  

[Pandora the Wonderful]

Double check the other info, and contact the owner. S/he might not know any practicing Wiccans, and the ones that they do know could have given him/her faulty information.  

[Chieftain Twilight]

there are a TON of false self-proclaimed "wiccans" out there, who seem to think they know what they are talking about.  

[Aakosir]

Chieftain Twilight

there are a TON of false self-proclaimed "wiccans" out there, who seem to think they know what they are talking about.

Oh, ya. I know that one...  

[Shadows-shine]

I've never been to the website, but now I am almost curious enough to go check out what it says about my religion.  

[Lateralus es Helica]

Yeah I'm reading on Taoism on that site and some points are true, some are just complete misses. For instance:

Quote:

One should plan in advance and consider carefully each action before making it.

Taoists embrace natural spontaneity. The universe is in a constant flux of change, you cannot rely on things to be the same from one point to the next because it is not in their nature to do so, therefore such planning by Taoists would be an exercise in futility.

Granted any description in words of Tao by necessity will fall short, but there's a bunch of points there that make me think they may have done the Cliff Notes scan of Taoism and left it at that without any true understanding of it.  

[brainnsoup]

Aakosir

Okay. Now that I am skimming over some of the other sections a little red flag went up. They defined Wicca as a Neo-pagan, earth-centered religion. Does anyone else see what I do? Wicca is not earth-centered, but fertility-centered.

Let's see what else I can find that is wrong...

Also, isn't the Rede just advice? Because here they say "Their main rule of behavior is the Wiccan Rede which forbids them from harming people, including themselves, except in some cases of self-defense." like it is a law...

What's wrong with calling Wicca earth-centered? Does it have to be exclusive to either nature or fertility? Many cultures/ religions (and I would include Wicca in that category) use nature as symbolism for fertility. Hence Mother Earth.  

[Aakosir]

brainnsoup

Aakosir

Okay. Now that I am skimming over some of the other sections a little red flag went up. They defined Wicca as a Neo-pagan, earth-centered religion. Does anyone else see what I do? Wicca is not earth-centered, but fertility-centered.

Let's see what else I can find that is wrong...

Also, isn't the Rede just advice? Because here they say "Their main rule of behavior is the Wiccan Rede which forbids them from harming people, including themselves, except in some cases of self-defense." like it is a law...

What's wrong with calling Wicca earth-centered? Does it have to be exclusive to either nature or fertility? Many cultures/ religions (and I would include Wicca in that category) use nature as symbolism for fertility. Hence Mother Earth.

It's alright, but it's not specifically earth-centered. I have not found a sentence, on that site, that says it is also/mainly fertility oriented. And many people do not understand symbolism of the earth as fertilify, hense the people who are "I'm Wiccan! And I worship the earth by myself, sitting in my room, in comfy jeans and a T-shirt"  

[rmcdra]

brainnsoup

What's wrong with calling Wicca earth-centered? Does it have to be exclusive to either nature or fertility? Many cultures/ religions (and I would include Wicca in that category) use nature as symbolism for fertility. Hence Mother Earth.

Because it's not earth-centered. It's fertility centered. Fertility is a small subset of nature/earth.  

[brainnsoup]

Aakosir

brainnsoup

Aakosir

Okay. Now that I am skimming over some of the other sections a little red flag went up. They defined Wicca as a Neo-pagan, earth-centered religion. Does anyone else see what I do? Wicca is not earth-centered, but fertility-centered.

Let's see what else I can find that is wrong...

Also, isn't the Rede just advice? Because here they say "Their main rule of behavior is the Wiccan Rede which forbids them from harming people, including themselves, except in some cases of self-defense." like it is a law...

What's wrong with calling Wicca earth-centered? Does it have to be exclusive to either nature or fertility? Many cultures/ religions (and I would include Wicca in that category) use nature as symbolism for fertility. Hence Mother Earth.

It's alright, but it's not specifically earth-centered. I have not found a sentence, on that site, that says it is also/mainly fertility oriented. And many people do not understand symbolism of the earth as fertilify, hense the people who are "I'm Wiccan! And I worship the earth by myself, sitting in my room, in comfy jeans and a T-shirt"

I don't have a problem with the website. From what I do know about Wicca, as I skimmed the page, I didn't see anything that was untrue, just some things that didn't give the full picture. But it seems like just an introduction to introduce people to the religion who have otherwise no or very little background knowledge about Wicca.
For example, you could read the page on Islam, but it would hardly prepare you for a pilgrimage to Mecca. And no matter how many links you follow on their page on Hinduism, it wouldn't teach you to identify all of the allegorical symbolism in the Ramayana, let alone pick it up. That said, the parts of the webpage that I read were reasonable enough.
Just like any religion, Wicca is hard to pin down or reduce to a list of absolutes. There are people who've educated themselves about Wicca but have taken the religion and made it their own. There's a difference between educated people who practice in a more casual way or without a coven and the misinformed teenagers who can barely spell "Wicca" and learned everything they know from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.


@rmcdra: Isn't it both though? If I ask, "What is Wicca?" and I get three answers:
Wicca is a neopagan religion about fertility.
Wicca is a neopagan religion about the earth.
Wicca is a neopagan religion that observes the lunar cycles.

They're all right, just neither paints a full picture of what Wicca is about.