What is a Pagan?

[kenofken]

Yes, I know I am apostate. It was unclear to me if pagan is used, in Catholicism to describe a state of being (unbaptised non Jew) or a state of faith.

It seems to be a state of being. So I am a Christian, due to my baptism even though I practice a non Christian faith.

In other circles, I am referred to as a pagan due to my faith.

As a pagan you know that words have power. Christians assert that you are one of them for life as a way of exerting power over you. Every religion which is about power does the same thing. Scientology says you can never be an ex-member, having signed a BILLION YEAR contract! If you are pagan in heart and spirit, you will not accept such labels and will define yourself by your own true will and your own understanding of the divine. In the broad sense, the term “pagan” is used by various Christian groups as a pejorative to define all those whose faiths they consider inferior. It’s even a term of infighting. Many evangelical protestants, especially Seventh-Day Adventists, consider Catholics to be pagans.

 

[AnAtheist]

In modern usage, a pagan is a person who follows a religion that is not one of the five major religions…Hindu, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity or Islam.

I have always wondered why Judaism should be considered a major religion. There a merely 15 Mio. followers. Compared to 100 Mio. or something Shintoists that’s minor or at least mediocre.

 

[PJM]

As a pagan you know that words have power. Christians assert that you are one of them for life as a way of exerting power over you. Every religion which is about power does the same thing. Scientology says you can never be an ex-member, having signed a BILLION YEAR contract! If you are pagan in heart and spirit, you will not accept such labels and will define yourself by your own true will and your own understanding of the divine. In the broad sense, the term “pagan” is used by various Christian groups as a pejorative to define all those whose faiths they consider inferior. It’s even a term of infighting. Many evangelical protestants, especially Seventh-Day Adventists, consider Catholics to be pagans.

“YOUR own truths” YOU GET TO MAKE THEM YORSELF…WOW!

That certainly is easy; so easy it can’t be right:shrug:

 

[PaganSpirt]

Pagan and heathen originally meant somebody from the countryside. Villian meant somebody from a village. These words only came to mean evil because when christians were converting everybody in the city, the people in villages and the country held onto their traditional beliefs and thus they were thought of as evil. Not true.

Today, the word Pagan is an umbrella term for everybody who follows a nature based religion. Some people include Hinduism and Buddhism in this but some don’t.

Things that mostly do come under this: Wicca, Witchcraft, any paths based on the religions on ancient Egypt, Ireland, England, Greek, Roman, middle Eastern, etc religions.

 

[Shawn_Ravenfire]

It has already been pointed out that “pagani” is Latin for rural peoples, and so a Pagan, originally, referred to any folk or indiginous religion. And since most of these folk religions were polytheistic, today, Pagan refers loosely to any polytheistic religion – Wicca, Shinto, Taoism, Asatru, and also all of the various tribal cultures from Australia, Africa, the Americas, the Pacific Islands, etc.

Hinduism is sort of a gray area, because although Hindus have many gods and goddesses, Hinduism is one of the “Dharmic” religions, which include a single unifying force which can be seen as Monotist.

Then of course, there are all of the various New Age and Spiritualist philosophies, some of which culturally overlap with the Neo-Pagan and Reconstructionist-Pagan communities. So there’s another gray area as to whether a “spirit” is the same or different from a “god.” (Broadly, one could interpret Catholic angels and saints as being god-like.)

 

[Wesley7]

Theoretically, you could associate all those tattoos with paganism.