Modern Symbolism -Why the Pentacle?, Atheists get new symbol

[Krista Kien]

In this link
http://www.invisiblepinkunicorn.com/
some atheists have banded together and claimed a snazzy logo to identifythemselves with. It's stylish, yet simple, and not too overt.
Why do we as pagans, generally cling to the pentacle, trying to revive it, and claim it for ourselves when most of paganism is a modern era creation AND the pentacle has negative connotations for a majority population?
Why didn't we create a new symbol like the atheists did?
Why didn't we settle for a simple five pointed star? Why did we circle it?
Why do we need five points at all? Why not a four pointed flower with a glowing centre?

Insight to this would probably come from the history of the banishing ritual of the pentagram. (Lesser) Why did they chose the pentagram?
At this point I don't actually know.

So if you were going to go back in time and replace the pentagram/pentacle, what would you choose?

[WhiskerWood]

The invisible pink unicorn is much like the flying spaghetti monster and Pastafarianism ( http://www.venganza.org/ ).
I think it is very amusing and thought provoking at the same time.

I think the pentacle is a wonderful old symbol and since many Pagan teachings are ancient, the symbol and the idea go hand in hand IMO.
I like the five pointed star because it still represents Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit, at least to me. The circle encompasses all of these things, but I am fine without the star being in the circle.
There is nothing we can do to change the misguided ideas people have about the pentacle unfortunately… all we can do is try to educate people about how misguided the perceptions of the pentacle/pentagram are.

But this is all what I think and nothing more…

[Krista Kien]

I was inspired about this topic orginally because someone somewhere else was commenting on how the pentacle should be a circle with a cross and a dot in the centre, because spirit is in the centre and the elements are at the quarters.
So it's weirdthat we didn't just use that.
I'm a bit sketchy on the usage of the pentacle. I'm not sure if it was used by ancient celts, but I think it may have a history in occultism, starting perhaps before christianity, ad being preserved through gnostic christianity, through to hermetism and thus modern paganism. (Modern paganism has roots in hermetic ceremonial magic)

One advantage of the pentacle is that one can draw it without raising their hand off the page, while a circle with a cross and a dot would be rather awkward for something like a lesser banish ritual.

Ah the spaghetti monster

[RChMI]

The Pentacle is of ancient origins that is still relevant today. Originally, the Pentagram was the interconnecting lines drawn about the stationary orbital positions of Venus. Venus is the only planet in our galaxy that exhibits precise and predictable stations when viewed from Earth. Venus is likened to a metronome for the galaxy, and has also been viewed in the context of a child (Earth) at the breast of its Mother (Venus) hearing the regularity of her heartbeat. Hence the association of Venus with that of a Mother Goddess. With that aspect Humanity has been able to synchronize and recalibrate between the various methods of marking time of the Sidereal Calendar, Solar Calendar, and Lunar Calendar, and has done so up until the 1950s when the use of the Atomic Clock replaced the calculating of Venus to recalibrate and resynchronize the various calendars.