This is an open letter to the lady of Christian faith who emailed Mrs Bob & myself to tell us how lost we were and destined for the tired old rhetoric of fire, brimstone and damnation.

I’m a patient person, who has studied many faiths and beliefs. I’ve read the holy scriptures of most religions, out of curiosity and understanding. Unfortunately, though, I have no patience whatsoever for people like you, who blindly attacked my beliefs, based on a total misconception and ignorance of what they actually are.

We do not worship the Devil, nor are we evil or lost souls as you may have been led to believe by your big book of fairy tales. Actually, quite the opposite is true of those who truly follow Wicca or paganism, or any of what are known as the Old Traditions. We are generally a peaceful group, who celebrate all life, seeing it as sacred in its many diverse forms.

A lot of the values you have been taught as a Christian were adopted or stolen from our beliefs hundreds of years ago. I am not trying to make you angry, but it is an easily documented and historical fact that Paganism, Witchcraft and the nature-based religions pre-date Christianity by several thousand years.

All Gods are One God; all Goddesses are One Goddess, all faiths of the divine are One faith. It is by striving to live ones life with truth, honour, integrity and respect for all that exists within our lives that we hope achieve a true connection to the divine.

Regardless of the name we give that supreme creative force for purposes of association, the essence of the divine remains unchanged. Humanity has simply associated the divine by different names according to the cultural background or experiences of the people following that particular belief.

As a nature-based belief, we see the divine not as some distant unobtainable force realised only at the end of life’s journey, but as a tangible connective energy which flows through everything around us here and now. As a scientist and engineer, this makes perfect sense to me. I don’t need wait until i die to obtain a heaven because it can be found in the magick of everything around us p, if we allow ourselves to be in tune with it.

If you tell me that I follow a false God because I find connection to the divine through nature, you are talking about the same God you follow and are contradicting the teachings of your own bible. Did God not create the whole of nature, and is divine energy and presence not within it? Instead of seeking the divine in a building, we choose to seek the divine within the mysteries and wonders of nature which the divine created. For myself and many others of the old faiths, the presence of the divine is much stronger within the forests, mountains or at the ocean than it could ever be within a building. If you do not know this, it has been too long since you sat and quietly felt divine presence in those settings.

Considering all this, I ask you, dear lady, why are you convinced that I am so evil? Why are you so afraid of me? Are we really that different, or is it that you simply rush to hypocritically judge without knowing who we are and what we’re truly about? Again, you are going against your precious book “judge not lest ye be judged yourself”

I followed the Christian path myself for a number of years. It was because of the intolerance and hypocrisy I encountered that led me to seek a different path. So in that respect, I have walked your path but found it contradictory. Have you walked in my path?

I still believe in a divine force, I just choose to seek it in other ways, ones that don’t promote hatred, intolerance and prejudice of others who seek the divine differently. If it works for you, and all your spiritual needs are complete through it, then I’m happy for you. It just didn’t ever work for me.