You better tell the Muslims, then, since at least half the Koran is commentary on the Bible.
And it’s a valid question: “What do we, O my co-religionists, mean, when we say pagan?”
Who is, or is not, a member is generally considered an important question in any religion. Especially in Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, where everything hinges on the Church, the Dar al-Islam, and the Sangha, respectively.
The OP was asking about “sixth senses” and other things beyond my erudition. If the OP wants an answer, the OP should ask other Pagans; which other pagans did.
The term “pagan”,
paganus, in the Latin, means “Country dweller”.
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paganus
Regarding the historical viewpoint, we Catholics saw pagans as evil, satanic, on par with Satan and his flock, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The kind which must be met with a blade. ← This view generally came from the Knightly duty to defend Christ, and since Christians are the body of Christ, we proudly set forth to do such. Protecting Christ, after all was a marvelous venture; and worth much merit, especially considering that the life of a soldier, and you can ask any in the armed forces, is always perilous and as Christus says,“Live by the sword and you shall die by it.”
Yet, the Clergy were always the ones to move forward with coercion; words rather than swords, it could be said.
In the modern world, we set apart from the Knightly way, the Knightly deeds and placed our swords on our mantels. We sat down by our chairs and told our children,“Look! This is who we were.” And the modern child would look at it and say,“But this is the new world, we don’t need you.”
And so, the new Catholic is born. I’ll stop there, since I have nothing good to say beyond this point.
-Karl
