Personally, I'm rather sceptic, so I wonder - can one be highly sceptical/science-minded/critical person and a druid?
Hi, Phi92, me too!
I take the approach that if a spiritual belief conflicts with science, then the belief has to go. If there's something we cannot prove one way or the other, then I tend to admit I don't know and leave it at that. From what I've seen of Druidry so far, this may not be the most common approach, but it certainly is possible to be a skeptic, and even an atheist and a Druid as well. It depends I think on whether Druidry is seen as a religion, or simply as a useful philosophy or way of life. So far in the OBOD course, I haven't come across much in the way of New-Age 'woo' language apart from a brief discussion of chakras, which can of course be seen just as a tool for mental focus.
When it comes to astrology, there is no evidence that the stars can affect human personality, and certainly no evidence that people can use them to predict future events. In fact, the astrological zodaic is not even an accurate map of the constellations as they appear now! This is due to 'precession', the slight wobble in the earth's orbit that means we have moved relative to the stars since the astrological zodiac was first drawn up thousands of years ago. I guess astrology could be used as a form of introspection, like other divinatory methods, but my biggest problem with it is that it is a vast industry based on fooling people and making money for all those newspaper astrologers out there.
With alternative medicine, it's important not to lump all forms of alternative healing in together. Some, like herbalism, massage therapy and acupuncture have been shown to have some results. Others, like homeopathy have not only been shown to be no more effective than placebo, but actually completely contradict the known laws of physics (ie when you dilute something several times, you don't make it stronger, you make it weaker)! I am concerned with alternative medicine when people use that and don't get proper medical treatment as well. Every now and then you read cases of that happening, and people dying as a result. I have nothing but contempt for the quacks who claim to be able to cure cancer with 'energy healing', and take vast sums of money from sick people to do nothing.
I'm with Tim Minchin on this one:
"By definition alternative medicine has either not been proved to work, or has been proved not to work. You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine."
I know that this attitude is not going to win me many friends in the druid/pagan community, but nobody can tell you you're not a 'real Druid'. That's up to you to decide and define for yourself I think. Anyway, I'm hardly an expert, but that's my tuppence worth!
