Is peiganism a religion?

Are you perhaps thinking of paganism?

Ya... I think that I was. I meant Paganism sorry for that. I didnt mean it to be that Peigan. Good thing you're on top of it. Thank you and thanks for any replies now that thas cleared up.

Excuse me, but from whence did you gather your information?

I ask, because #1, I doubt think there are too many people who whould misspell pagan as peigan 4 separate times unless they are totally mixing up their facts.

In fact, when googling "peigan" I see that that's the name of 3 separate tribes of the Blackfoot nation, in Canada and Montana.

#2, I have never heard of a pagan saying or indicating that each person or creation is "god".

#3, I think today people are generally more knowledgable and sophisticated and don't associate pagans with devil worship. Not all pagans practice witchcraft either.


"Is paganism a religion that should have been"? Should have been what?


Question for you...

You do realize that christians have "borrowed" numerous pagan rituals, aspects and signs, and have incorporated them into their christian beliefs?

I'm not aware of any christian belief that pagans have incorporated into their beliefs.

So...if one believes pagans are devil worshippers, and christians follow many of the same rituals, what does that make them?

Thank you for your frankness as I realise all of this. I have heard and seen people say and write things such as this on paper or upon the web and I was testing to see if there are more people who beleive these things. The frankness with which you replied this makes me realise that not everyone goes around spouting wrong information. I thank you for dispelling my old beliefs of others becasue you definitly know your facts.

Pagan is what the other fellow is. To me, a Buddhist, Christians and Muslims are pagans. "Pagans have strange beliefs that are obviously false, because they are different from the teachings of the True Religion that I and my friends practice."

The thing is that religions have a terrible tendency to promote chauvinism. Not all religions are equally guilty, but the Abrahamic family of religions seems especially prone to belittling other folk's religious beliefs.

"paganism" appears to be the mother of all religions. man fears nature, man worships nature, man develops complex beliefs that allow him to cope with nature. alternatively, nature is divine, pagans respond to that divinity.

either way, there seem to be elements of paganism in all major religions. while it's considered perfectly normal to celebrate holidays in religions that otherwise treat nature as a relatively unimportant collection of things god did when he was bored, people celebrate events that coincide with cycles of the moon, as did "pagans" in africa, north america, ancient palestine, and europe.

lots of pagan symbolism has survived in modern relgion. the magen david (six point star) and the pentacle seem to bear a kind of relation, and the seder plate seems very similar to a pagan altar, except that there are 6 places instead of 5 (assuming the altar is based on a pentacle.)

the cross and swastika were also a pagan symbols, and can be found in other, more recent religious traditions throughout the world, where one is a symbol of the sun and unity, and the other also seems to be. it is also possible that the cross and the swastika are variations of the same thing. you can even find swastika mosaics designed into the floors of ancient jewish temples.

there are about a dozen pagan gods that bear a story remarkably similar to that of jesus, but before his time- more than one were born on dec 25th, more than one of them were crucified, and more than one of them said they would give everlasting life to whoever drank their blood and ate their flesh. to answer your question, removing pagan influence from religion would be very nearly impossible.

Any "shared belief system" involving ritual behaviour amongst consensual individuals could be deemed "religious". This would include extremes of nationalism or political totalitarianism. (By this I am implying that communist "atheism" is an oxymoron). The function of the ritual is to publically reify and externalise the "belief system" such that it moves from "the abstract" to the "socially concrete". So called "sacred texts" are another manifestion of this reification, whether it be "the Bible", or "Mao's little Red Book".

By Fresco's definition, which i consider not only reasonable, but the virtually the only plausible definition of religion, there are a whole Hell of a lot of people who identify themselves as atheists who are practicing a religion. On those few occasions on which i have met "militant" atheists, i have tended to avoid them thereafter, as their attitudes and activities struck me as no different than organized religion.

Interesting Set, I'd never thought of it that way before.

But, yes, I have gotten the impression from people I've met that they are doing their best to convert you to atheism.

Religion?

Religion?

How come all them boys is awearin' dresses . . . is that some kinda gay religion?

maybe this....?

or.....

oh, yes. and while it would only be proper to find another word for it, the difference is a subtle one to me, more than it seems to be to many of them. i've touched on this in my thread "my problem with atheists." note that i'm certainly not referring to all of them, and i deliberately chose the word "atheists-" not "atheism."

i would say that man pictured above has turned his homophobia into some kind of pseudo-christian religion as well.

man recreates god in his own image.

Pagan is a title, an explination if you will.... not a religion.



At one point in time the term pagan MAY HAVE been a word/name for a religion, but in todays society it is more of a title that covers a vast majority of religions, that dont fall under the popular religion. In america that popular religion is probably christianity

If you ask a christian, most may say that a pagan is any non christian. Heathens if you will..

Those of us who follow 'nature religions' use the word pagan to explain our beliefs in a quick, shallow term that brings most religious dicussions to an end, or allows us a quick explination of our beliefs with out deep discussion.
To say I am pagan, simply means I am not christian, or part of any other main stream religion.
But in the 'pagan community' the term pagan is not a religious belief at all.

Asatrufelagid is recognised in Iceland officially as religion.


And many "pagans" are organised in the "World Congress of Ethnic Religions" (WCER), e.g. The Troth ("an international heathen [sic!] organization, based in the USA".

Just an aside shewolf.

I mentioned in another thread that I always had a small level of discomfort with the word "pagan"...while it described my reverence for nature, it felt too.....I don't know..."hippyish".

I take too many showers to be a hippy. :wink:

Giving it a lot of thought, for me, I'm more comfortable calling myself a "deist"

I have never understood why people assumed that hippies didn't bathe, or why anyone would assume that those who were not hippies had a superior hygiene--my experience contradicted that.