Elsewhere I have described the major philosophical influences that helped to give birth to a postmodern paganism. Here I'll try to contrast postmodern paganism with the two dominant philosophies of our age, nihilistic materialism and fundamentalism, and also with a minority philosophy that I call insipidism for want of a better term. My bias in favor of postmodern paganism should be quite clearly stated from the outset.
Nihilistic materialism has been in the ascendant since the very late 19th century. It probably forms the basis for most people's attitudes toward life in the established and developing industrial nations of the world. Its philosophical roots go back to science as it derived from Newtonian mechanics, but its underlying worldview is more intellectually grounded in 19th century reductionistic scientism and its offshoots in the 20th century, from social Darwinism to utilitarianism in the political arena, from behaviorism in psychology, and from analytic philosophy and mid-20th century existentialism. In nihilistic materialism the human being is an isolated biomechanical construct in a world devoid of meaning. Hence it promulgates a moral philosophy of relativism, where any course of action is justifiable from the point of view of the actor. Its moral imperative is satiation, the satisfaction of the material needs that are held to be the cause of all unhappiness. In its model, the conceiver of meaning is much like a neglected infant, preoccupied with its physical discomfort. Its conception of meaning is really a denial of meaning, i.e., it is only the surface thing itself that is of importance. Since one must use language, however, it employs a scientific arbitration of meaning to arrive at truth. At the same time, its interpretation of meaning is deconstructive so as to weed out the presumed disguised agendas of others. The behavioral worldview that results is materialistic, but fraught with contradictions. While its basis for action is quasi-hedonistic, it shares some of the revulsion for the body and for one's physical embodiment that characterizes the fundamentalist worldview. Nihilistic materialism produces a fragmented sociopolitical tendency that ranges from the consumeristic to the technocratic, from the anarchic to the neofascist. Its attitude toward sex is to view sex as a consumable like any other material good. The emotional coloration of nihilistic materialism is based in anxiety, need and anger--emotions appropriate to the neglected infant (some might also ascribe these to the adolescent, but that is probably an artifact of our culture's treatment of adolescents). The temporal focus of nihilistic materialism is almost always limited to the present.
Fundamentalism presents a striking contrast to this. It provides an aggressive dissent to the modern world, albeit in grudging retreat. Its philosophical roots are in the distant past, in Manicheanism, Gnosticism, transcendence, revelation, disembodiment spirituality and bibliolatry. The fundamentalist premise is that the world is corrupted and evil and that the human being must purge his or her own corruption and sinfulness in order to escape it. Its moral philosophy is one of absolutism, where good and evil derive from an absolute authority separate from the individual, and its moral imperative is obedience to this authority. Its model for the conceiver of meaning is the harsh and distant parent whose arbitrary ways are beyond all attempts at understanding. The conception of meaning in fundamentalism is one of petrified meaning, an eternal law given down in the beginning of time that never changes. Since this inflexible law is often confusing or inapplicable to the individual, fundamentalism relies on an ecclesiastical arbitration of meaning , with a priest caste determining the right application for a given time and place. The fundamentalist interpretation of meaning is an iconified meaning that neatly forms the reverse of the interpretation of nihilistic materialism--here the thing itself is never the surface one, but an eternal one that can only be apprehended in signs and symbols. The resulting behavioral worldview is millenarian, a focus on the presumed End-Time when the world can be left behind. The basis for action in fundamentalism is quasi-ascetic, with an emphasis on the evils of bodily pleasures. The sociopolitical tendency of the fundamentalist is authoritarian, either conservative or reactionary depending on how well his or her chosen faith has managed to suborn the local civil authority. The attitude toward sex promoted either openly or in disguised ways is that sex is evil, and the emotional coloration oscillates between certainty, fear and guilt. The temporal focus of fundamentalism is on the future and the past--one as the eternal end-state and the other as the eternal source of all authority.
One alternative to these two unlivable philosophies has lurked in the background for untold years and influences far more people than would necessarily advocate it or identify themselves as adherents to it. What I call insipidism ("illogical positivism" is another description that springs to mind) is a vague philosophy that everything is really for the best and that all will work out if we merely discern the underlying truths from the past that have formed the present. In recent years a good deal of sophisticated insipidism has masqueraded as "New Age" philosophy, much of it centering around the notion that "you create your own reality" (YCYOR). Its focus is on simple, comforting, perennial truths--that "love is the answer", that you really learned everything you needed to know in kindergarten (or earlier) and that you can regain peace of mind by getting in touch with your "higher self" or "inner child" or "guardian angel" or whatever. In earlier ages this might have been expressed as "God will provide" or "God works in mysterious ways"--what remains is the urge to explain away glibly the need for confronting clear and present evils. The philosophical roots of insipidism are highly eclectic, ranging from solipsism, theosophy, and ideas of karma and predestination to faith healing, modern guru schools and even psychoanalysis. Its moral philosophy is based in truism, where good can be derived from "home truths" learned and universally accepted in some prior Golden Age and where evil can be seen as transient or illusory. The twin moral imperatives of insipidism are health and security, with an emphasis on the psychological aspects of both concepts. Insipidism has the model of a somewhat older child as its conceiver of meaning, one who has developed a certain trust in authority combined with yearnings for a time when she or he was the focus of all parental concern. Its conception of meaning is one of placental meaning, provided to hold onto for comfort and nourishment. The arbitration of meaning in insipidism is generally either hygienic or pedagogic, with self-proclaimed healers and teachers as authority figures. There is a curious interpretation of meaning in insipidism, one which could be consider transitional object-based in the sense that a child's security blanket comes to both represent the mother and assume its own meaning as an object in the transition away from the mother. The behavioral worldview of insipidism is nostalgic for the Golden Age that is presumed to have existed in days just beyond memory. The basis for action is almost always psychological, grounded in introspection and regurgitation of past life events. There is a muddled sociopolitical tendency of a quasi-liberal sort that accompanies insipidism, but it is generally not strongly defined and acted upon. The attitude toward sex in insipidism is ambivalent, with a surface appreciation confounded by worries about its ramifications for emotional and physical hygiene. Generally speaking, the emotional coloration of insipidism is a surprisingly negative blend (given its outwardly Disney-ish view of the world) of resentment and feelings of victimization (in the past) with smugness about one's own present moral superiority. Insipidism promotes a temporal focus on the past, with some concern for the present creeping in.
The emerging philosophy of postmodern paganism presents a radically different alternative to the above belief systems, incorporating aspects of premodern polytheistic religions, modern scholarship and postmodern thinking. Its stress on the individual as a creative participant in the world-in-process promotes a more active and involved stance than the other three and yet it also presents a strongly mystical side. The philosophical roots of postmodern paganism are if anything more eclectic than those of insipidism: embodiment spirituality, immanence, paganism, and panpsychism from premodern times, post-Renaissance romanticism, plus the existentialism of Kierkegaard, the process thought of Whitehead, the psychomythography of Jung and others, and the systems thinking of modern ecology and cybernetics. The moral philosophy of postmodern paganism is one of holism, the awareness of each individual as a living synecdoche of the whole and intimately connected to it. The moral imperative that derives from this is individuation, the growth and expression of oneself as a unique and necessary contributor to the world. The conceiver of meaning in this model is the loving mother, fallible but determined in her labors, and the conception of meaning is that the creation of meaning is paramount. Postmodern paganism employs an arbitration of meaning that is both mystical and existential. Its interpretation of meaning is both constructive and participatory, in the sense of recognizing that one's own meaning is, like oneself, connected to the whole. The postmodern pagan behavioral worldview is spiritual, in line with its belief in the omnipresence of spirit. Its basis for action is experiential, with each present created modifying the conditions for future creative choice. The primary sociopolitical tendency that results is libertarian. The postmodern pagan attitude toward sex is quite simply that sex is holy, a manifestation of God's will. The emotional coloration of the postmodern pagan is perhaps less dark than his or her premodern counterpart's: a mix of hope, irony and compassion that is sometimes self- deprecating and tolerant of different viewpoints. Postmodern paganism alone of the philosophies mentioned has a complete temporal focus, with the present, future and past all given their due (probably in that order of importance).
What I have just described are "pure" philosophical stances, in the sense that each is a concentrate of beliefs and attitudes toward self and the world into a system that is, in each case, self-consistent. In practice, individuals hold an "impure" mix of aspects of these systems at various levels of their consciousness, with varying levels of awareness of the conflicts among them. Hence, one might intellectually believe in one stance, be tugged toward another emotionally, and act based on others still (in the most extreme case of dislocation). The beliefs inculcated in one's upbringing, those adopted in the period of one's early maturation, and those of the local community and society as a whole could contribute to such an internally inconsistent state of mind and heart.