Far be it from me to tell anyone else what they should believe. My own faith is a learning process with very few actual graven-in-stone tenets. Be a good host, bring honor to your family name, don’t piss off the local spirits; other bits that may or may not be true or even accurate. Reconstructed faiths are that way. It’s a lot like putting together an old Lego set: pieces get lost, and sometimes you end up with a red brick right where the Death Star’s giant laser belongs. That’s fine; I need the challenge.

So, no, you believe what you want to believe, because this is America, and you have that right. Whatever you believe, however, stop doing it wrong, okay? Faith is not about forcing the world to fit into your personal matchbox of expectations. Faith is about understanding the world and your own place in it. Whether it’s God’s plan, fractal math, or Nuada’s lessons on accepting a situation and dealing with it, the whole point of religion, all religion (and a lot of demi-religious philosophies) is about you, and no one else.

If you’re an atheist and you find it necessary to share your thoughts on the illusion of faith, and the great epiphany you had that joy is just a bunch of electro-chemical reactions, zip it. You’re doing it wrong. My Corn Flakes may just be deep fried cattle feed, but I like them, and I don’t need you crapping in them because you don’t approve of my choices. If your life runs better believing that life is more or less meaningless and we’re really a bunch of ants on a cosmic truck tire, then fine for you. I think otherwise, and I’m not interested in debating the ineffable with someone who demands a NASA report to believe the sun still rises on cloudy days.

LIES!!!

By that same token, if you’re a Christian, and you’re berating people (who aren’t your minor children) for committing any sin, zip it, and read your bible again. You’re doing it wrong. There is nothing, from the first letter of Matthew to the last period in Revelation that instructs people of the faith to browbeat anyone for anything. The harshest treatment you will find you are allowed to direct at people who don’t engage in Christian morality is to dissociate from them. You don’t get to tell to people in love that they can’t get married under the law, because the civil law is Caesar’s coin and it is reserved for Caesar. You sure as hell don’t get to tell anyone why being gay, reading crappy literature, or dressing in their own fashion makes them horrible. I can give you five quotes attributed to Jesus that tell you the opposite; his whole thing was your salvation, and he spent a lot of time reminding people to keep their own house in order. Period. Full stop.

Besides, Pretend Cat already knows what you did.

Lastly, if you are a practicing neo-pagan of any kind, and you’re not just trying to piss off your parents, shut up. The victims of witch-burnings weren’t Wiccans, they were Christians who had things that some douchebags wanted. The Celts, Greeks, Egyptians, and even Native Americans were never about peace and good stewardship of the planet. If those faiths speak to you. Yay for you. I know how you feel, Reconstructed Celticism is where I settled and it feels right. Just try not to subscribe to the Facebook Infographic version of that faith, because that’s doing it wrong.

Your faith is your own, and you are free to celebrate it any way you want to. But the same goes for me.