Pagans

[divineangel77]

How does everyone here define pagan or paganism? There are a wide range of definitions about what paganism and the beliefs of it are.

Do you think pagans are people who do not believe in the Christian God or are pagans people that just do not believe in any God?

I am very interested in knowing peoples views on this term because lately I have come across it numerous times..but each time with a different answer or meaning.

[Babylon_Jasmine]

People who do not believe in any god are called Atheist, not Pagan. There are also people who do not believe in the Christian God who are certainly not Pagan (Jews and Muslims) and others who most would not consider pagan (Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Rastafarians) Paganism is a group of religions all of which hod a reverence for nature, they also tend to have some sort of magical practice, although that is not universal, some pagans do believe in the Christian God but they hold that he is not all-powerful, not the only God, or that he is evil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagan offers a decent analysis of historical and contemporary uses of the word Pagan. Most people who describe themselves as Pagan are neo-pagans, which is a bit different from the traditional use of the word. There are probably about as many paths of Paganism as there are of Christianity, and the differences between them can be great.

[divineangel77]

Thanks for your response Babylon_Jasmine,

I agree with you in that people that are not of the Christian faith are not pagans. That there a whole variety of people outside of the Christian faith and that paganism itself is something very different from mainstream religions or atheism itself.

It was just a question I threw out after I saw this on www.dictionary.com

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pagan

1. one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks.
2. a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim.
3. an irreligious or hedonistic person.

Ofcourse this is not a reliable source to look for the meanings of things in depth but people generally use the dictionary to get a general quick and summarized definition of anything. I personally go to dictionary.com or any other dictionary to get a brief summarized definition of something. Its sort of a first impression of the meaning of a term.

My point is that it is sad to see such definitions on a site used worldwide but it is what it is.

[Babylon_Jasmine]

That is an interesting definition, because Wicca, probably the widest spread sect of paganism is not polytheistic. They believe in one divine being who projects itself as male and female and that those two faces project themselves as a multitude of Gods and Goddesses. Of course that is covered by the "not Christian, Muslim, or Jew" definition, but that seems far too broad to me.

[Admin]

some say hinduism is a pagan religion

[copperhed]

Pagan, as I understand, is the belief in the female as half of the Divinity.
"Chalice" is womb and "Spear" is penis, inverted they complete the whole.
Any teaching that embraces the worth of female and the Goddess is Paganism.
Catholicism , Islam, Judism and all the rest exhume the female as anything but less than.

Religion where maiden/woman/crone is found is considered Paganism.

Copper

[Meche]

That's not totally accurate, Copperhead, as the Gnostic Christians would tell you; they do believe in the "Sacred Feminine" as they call it; and I think they wouldn't appreciate being called Pagans (the hardcore ones anyway).

[austin]

Paganism in many dictionaries is defined as a false religion but after looking into the definition I see that it actually means villager, and not necessarily anything and everything that worships or respects a female or feminine entity.

People started using the definition of: worshipper of false gods after the
1300s.

[yinyang]

posted this before today but seems more appropriate for this thread so reposting.

pagan comes from the latin for village or country dweller, all non christain religions come under paganism, as they were practiced mainly by those living outside of the major towns of the day

[divineangel77]

some say hinduism is a pagan religion



Paganism is any faith or religion that doesn't follow the teachings of the Abrahamic God, i.e. Christianity, Muslim, Hebrew, Satanist. So yes Hindu religion is a pagan faith.

[Tyrie]

(dictionary definition) Any non-Abrahamic religion would be pagan - which is a pretty broad category. When capitalized, Paganism refers to a number of religions that are mostly derived from/inspired by pre-Christian European religions.

[raphnix]

Yeah, I also wonder if psychics and spirit talkers are also paganists. Though some Psychics I know re also Christians.

[psychic-test]

i dont think that only the non christian religons are pagan, there are lots others that are not pagan such as jews and muslims and many more faiths