Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!olorin
From: olorin@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Dave Weinstein)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Call For Discussion: talk.religion.pagan
Message-ID: <20739@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 9 Nov 89 22:16:09 GMT
References: <20614@ut-emx.UUCP> <1017@umigw.MIAMI.EDU> <1989Nov8.172039.16246@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> <1026@umigw.MIAMI.EDU>
Reply-To: olorin@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Dave Weinstein)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 42

In article <1026@umigw.MIAMI.EDU> aem@Mthvax.CS.Miami.Edu writes:
>In article <1989Nov8.172039.16246@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> ptgarvin@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Patrick T. Garvin) writes:
>>The problem with talk.religion.wicca is that, although Wiccans are pagan,
>>not all pagans are Wiccan.  The other varieties of pagan would feel excluded.
>
>Now clearly Wiccans are pagan by the dictionary definition.

	True, but as has been stated many times, not all pagans are
Wiccan.

>>I think that more discussion is warranted on the name, obviously.  
>
>>How about talk.religion.neo-pagan
>
>neo-pagan? What the hell is that? It's another newage bastardization.
>Crowley would be proud. If it's neo-pagan you want, keep it in
>t.r.newage where it belongs.

	The term neo-pagan refers to the modern pagan religions (i.e. Wicca,
the various Druidic religions, NROGD, etc). They are not properly "new age"
as they tend to be more of a harkening back to older ideas. There are
other streams going on in talk.religion.newage which do not deal with pagan
or neo-pagan topics, these would remain. I do, however, object to your
description of the term "neo-pagan" as a "newage bastardization". It is
a term used by modern pagans and modern pagan religions to refer to themselves,
as such it has a proper usage (it is not, as you seem to suggest, a meaningless
term, but rather one to differentiate between the newer pagan traditions, and
the older (or paleo-pagan) traditions).
	I would also disagree with the choice of names being changed to either
talk.religion.neopagan or talk.religion.wicca, because I think that both
are too narrow, .neopagan for excluding other pagan traditions, and .wicca
for excluding all but one religion.


>aem

--Dave

--- 
Dave Weinstein             "No one has ever wanted a new computer language.
olorin@walt.cc.utexas.edu   They want an improved Fortran!" -- Chuck Moore
GEnie: OLORIN              Disclaimer: These are my opinions. Find your own.