I have privately begun to refer to contemporary Westerners as born-again sort of pagans, which is rather silly because, unlike pagans, most modern people of the West have no religion and do not believe in the reality of God or gods.
I was initially more inclined to the term born-again atheist, but that somehow disregards the mysterious allure of pagan externals, which appears to intrigue contemporary Westerners to no end.
Case in point, many Western people are drawn to things like tattoos, piercings, and other forms of body art—ditto for strange, anachronistic hairstyles. The underlying motivation seems to be the desire to look like a Viking or a gladiator without worrying about what assumptions Vikings or gladiators may have held.
I suspect that most Westerners want to project an image like this.
I was initially more inclined to the term born-again atheist, but that somehow disregards the mysterious allure of pagan externals, which appears to intrigue contemporary Westerners to no end.
Case in point, many Western people are drawn to things like tattoos, piercings, and other forms of body art—ditto for strange, anachronistic hairstyles. The underlying motivation seems to be the desire to look like a Viking or a gladiator without worrying about what assumptions Vikings or gladiators may have held.
I suspect that most Westerners want to project an image like this.
Or this.
But most come off looking more like this.
Or this.
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