The Lure of Esotericism

I believe that esoteric practice (ie. Gnosticism, Hermeticism. Qaballah, etc.) is just another form of excessive pride/hubris.  The practitioner believes that he/she has special "secrets" of the gods, which are only entrusted during stages of initiations -- the hoi polloi, of course, not being capable of understanding such things.  BAH! and HUMBUG! I say to that.
Another reason that I look at it with a leery eye is that it has a feel of "dogma" to it.  Most of the esoteric practices of which I am aware arose further to the East and in Egypt.  Some reconstructionists even think that if the ancient polytheist religions were left alone they would have become more neo-Platonic and Hermetic.  I certainly would not have wanted that to happen!
The Mysteria at Eleusis is said to have opened the doors to all this other {redacted}.  Personally, I do not feel that Eleusis was esoteric even though the initiates kept its secrets.  A person did not need to study in order to go through the initiation -- anyone could as long as they could speak Greek.  This sounds like exoteric religion to me.
 

Another Good Reason to Dump "Pagan"

All of my readers know why I dislike the words pagan and paganism.  Anyway, there is another reason to dislike the terms -- they are being taken over by the New Atheists.  Yes, that is correct, the group of people who have evolution expert Dawkins, who is a professor at Cambridge, as their figurehead, have glommed onto "pagan" to describe themselves because they are all into ecology.  The web site/blog Humanistic Paganism was brought to my attention today in my E-mail because of a short essay by a M.J. Lee entitled "Why Do People Want Supernatural Gods?"  http://www.humanisticpaganism.com/2012/06/03/why-do-people-want-supernatural-gods-by-m-j-lee/ Right away I can see that there is a BIG problem with this essay.  In my theology and world-view, the gods are NOT supernatural.  Star Foster had a wonderful rebuttal, to which, of course, none of the so-called intellectuals involved with this group responded.  In fact, she has published a more thorough rebuttal on her blog over at Patheos, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2012/when-pagan-loses-meaning-atheists-and-theists/
As a matter of an FYI, I would like to recommend a WordPress blog, The New Oxonian.  He writes profusely about the New Atheists (he does not have a good opinion of them).