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the definition of paganism is any religious practise outside of the three abrahamic religions—christianity, judaism and islam. this includes large, common religions such as sikhism, taoism, hinduism etc., as well as smaller folk beliefs.
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As someone who grew up in a strictly Christian household (though I don't really identify as 'Christian' anymore), I've only really heard of paganism when it's being referred to something 'bad' (i.e. "Halloween is a 'pagan' holiday"). I've just never understood why though?? Like why is it treated like some sort of jaw-dropping horrifying thing??
yes it is treated like that, just because it isn't the "norm" :) These religions are often seen as weird or judged because it just isn't standard
i believe paganism is beliefs that revolve around a reverence for nature, spirituality and divinity in the natural world, and is often polytheistic or animistic. paganism is an umbrella term for the pre abrahamic polytheistic religions
Ah- Ok, I see
Barnette ⋆˙⟡ wrote: "Do spiritual beliefs like the belief in ghosts or similar spirits count as paganism?"
it depends, does your entire belief system revolve around ghosts? most likely yes because to my knowledge none of the abrahamic religions encourage a belief in ghosts or spirits, however not all pagan religions believe in ghosts.
it's important to recognize that technically, i believe that <50% of the world is abrahamic (i think 47%? fact check me on that), which means that the majority of the world is pagan
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This is something I posted in another group about Halloween being pagan and demonic.
The story behind Halloween is far from demonic, in fact it has Christian origins.
2000 years ago, the ‘Celt’s’ believed that November 1st was the day between fall and winter, and therefore the boundary between living and dead became thin. They believed that souls may cross into the living world, and to ward off bad ones, they would dress up and light bonfires.
Later, Christian popes made November 1st All Saints’ Day, to celebrate the saints and good people, in attempts to rid of pagan tradition, and for the most part it did.
Trick or treating came in when in medieval times people would go house to house for donations for the church, and people would pay churchgoers to pray for the dead on November 1st. People who couldn’t afford to give money would give small ‘soul cakes’ mainly to children who would be dressed up to show their faith, and eventually this became trick or treating. The only pagan part would be dressing up as animals or something ‘scary’ because that is what the celts did.
The rest of Halloween is a Christian tradition.
i’m genuinely so interested in paganism. not as a religion to follow or anything, but it’s so beautiful and symbolic and i love seeing how people express themselves and their culture. growing up i saw a lot of hate towards it, and that might’ve been the reason i didn’t know people still practice paganism until a little while ago 💔
Tessie wrote: "This is something I posted in another group about Halloween being pagan and demonic.The story behind Halloween is far from demonic, in fact it has Christian origins.
2000 years ago, the ‘Celt’s’..."
I've heard about that! I never understood what was so 'wrong' with Halloween when I was growing up. All we're doing is dressing up and eating candy lol
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Nothing at all!
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You don’t have to celebrate demons on Halloween? You can still just go trick or treating and such because that was a Christian tradition. You don’t have to celebrate demons by a childhood activity.
sorry tessie i didnt read through properly so i apologise if i’m restating what you said, but what i was always taught was that christian’s believe that hallow’s eve is like the day earth is most open to like demons or something, and they wore scary costumes to scare off any demons.
Uhm- off topic I guess but I'd like to add that instead of having a distinct religion inside paganism, I identify as pagan in general as I believe in respect of nature and everything in it. Thanking the earth for housing us for example
This might be a silly question, but what exactly is the question being debated? I see the topic is just “paganism” so I’m unsure what is actually being debated, if anything in particular.
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This is just a discussion, not a debate.
Tessie wrote: "You don’t have to celebrate demons on Halloween? You can still just go trick or treating and such because that was a Christian tradition. You don’t have to celebrate demons by a childhood activity."thats what i do like most ppl dont know the origins of halloween its js a time to have fun dress up and get candy yum
minnie {s.ia} wrote: "Tessie wrote: "You don’t have to celebrate demons on Halloween? You can still just go trick or treating and such because that was a Christian tradition. You don’t have to celebrate demons by a chil..."fr
Sydney wrote: "@tessie I don’t necessarily agree, even though most of the traditions we now know are based on catholic traditions that doesn’t mean the origins of that Celtic festival are erased. The Celtic peopl..."The Catholics didn't necessarily "put another holiday on top" of the Pagan holidays. They did created these similarities so that it would be easier for the pagans to convert to Christianity. We can see the best examples of this with Roman monks coming to convert the Celts to Roman Catholic. The Celts weren't the smartest kids on the block, so to make it easier for the Celts to convert to Christianity, they made it simpler and sort of combined ideas of paganism and Christianity. They would use simple pagan ideas and shape them so that they fit Christianity.
I've always been intrigued by the idea of Paganism. I'm a Christian, but I do enjoy learning about paganism, and really until a few months ago, I wasn't even aware that there were still people practicing this religion. Since this is a discussion, I will be sharing MY OPINION of this idea. For the sake of the discussion, I will be excluding Hinduism, due to the fact that it can be interpreted as monotheistic, polytheistic, and henotheistic.
I think the idea of paganism is such a nuanced and broad term that cannot be truly validated or invalidated. Since it refers to any religion that isn't Abrahamic. I think that it can often be confused with polytheism, which does have overlaps with paganism, but are not synonymous with each other. But since the topic isn't about polytheism, I will just state that I think that paganism can be a true religion, but is slightly too broad of a term for me to form an educated opinion on.
again, just in general, paganismis not a singular religion, it is a derogatory umbrella term for any and all non abrahamic religions. and it has nothing to do with being polytheistic, for example, buddhism is a non-theistic religion accepted as pagan due to not being abrahamic. most pagan religions by technicality do prefer not to be identified as such due to the fact that it feels like a forced, and often false labeling, and paganism has a very broad definition with a different meaning societally and by technicality, as it was originally used to spread christian propaganda as an insult to those who worshipped older, non christian and often polythiestic beliefs, and was then adopted as a blanket for all other religions, and lacks a heavy nuance by combining all disparate religions into a singular term.
what i'd actually be interested in hearing is how do you all classify pagans? those of you who may be less educated, are there any stereotypes you have about paganism? i think that this being a discussion and not a debate is a great opportunity to educate and learn the difference between pagan and pagan, if you get what i mean.
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The way I classify paganism is any worship of other gods or idols that aren't the God of Christianity.
I Corinthians 10:20-21 says "No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God."
So basically paganism is any worship or belief in a god or being that isn't the God.
what about pagans who don't believe in a god? spiritual beliefs i mean
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and these gods are false btw, just wanted to make that clear, I know that may cause offense to anyone who does worship other gods but... Ok I really don't have any other way to say that so if you're offended then I'm sorry 😓
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you mean like worship of nature or the earth, etc?
Sydney wrote: "Sydney wrote: "ash ³³ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ wrote: "what i'd actually be interested in hearing is how do you all classify pagans? those of you who may be less educated, are there any stereotypes you have about ..."okay well personally, as a non abrahamic, i dont really care lmfao your god is false, and i don't take the words of the followers of a false god too seriously. i don't think other people will be too offended either
Sydney wrote: "ash ³³ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ wrote: "what about pagans who don't believe in a god? spiritual beliefs i mean"you mean like worship of nature or the earth, etc?"
yeah, to be so honest i'm not super educated on different pagan sections, but yeah that in general, or like take taoism, they do not have a god nor do they worship anything, rather their religion is based around a way of life
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yeah its just that some people can get offended if I say 'your God isn't real' but I don't know how to say it without rejecting my belief lol so sorry folks but if I offend ya just know I don't mean to
'my religion tells me there is no other god beyond my own, so i don't agree with or share your beliefs about so-and-so' is a polite way of saying it
but at the same time, i'm just of the belief that like, your faith in your religion should be strong enough that no amount of external blasphemy should cause doubt or offense. if someone openly disrespects a god and says 'oh theyre shit because', yes i'm upset, but if someone tells me my religion is false why would i care 🤣
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you mean like worship of nature or the earth, etc?"
yeah, to be so honest i'm not su..."
There are two types of taoism. Philosophical and religious.
Philosophical taoism focuses on living in harmony with the Tao, which is like the 'way' of the universe, and the philosophical principles of the Tao. I don't know the specific principles that they say the Tao has.
Religious taoism is philosophical taoism but with the worship of deities that are said to also submit to the Tao
So philosophical taoism is not pagan because as it says in the name, it is philosophy, there is no worship of gods/deities.
Religious taoism is pagan because it includes the worship of other gods.
So to answer your question, paganism is the worship of other gods, if the particular sect doesn't worship anything or hold any being to high esteem, I would call it a philosophy not a religion, therefore a philosophy wouldn't be classified as paganism in my opinion.
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you're one of the good ones. Most of the non-christian people I know would get openly offended and proceed to yell at me, they have done it before :( But at least there's respectful people like you in this world :)
so would you consider philosophical taoists athiests? once again i am not completely educated on this topic so these are genuine questions i'm asking i swear 😭 and can you tell me more about religious taoism, what gods do they worship?
Sydney wrote: "ash ³³ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ wrote: "but at the same time, i'm just of the belief that like, your faith in your religion should be strong enough that no amount of external blasphemy should cause doubt or offens..."it's really interesting that you've experienced that, because i've always experienced the flip side, with many christians becoming upset with me after i say i don't care or believe in jesus or god or whatever, often accompanied by threats of going to hell (which i dont even believe in lmfao) or similar swears and stuff, so perhaps i should be the one saying you're one of the good ones
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Yes. Philosophical taoists don't believe in a god. They believe that the Tao is the order of the universe and everything arose from it. They have certain principles that they follow and they believe these principles also come from the Tao.
Religious taoism: I do not know the specifics of their gods but the gods that they worship come from the Tao. So basically there are gods but the Tao is like the ultimate thing (why can I not think of an educated word other than thing lol) and the Tao is the source of creation including the gods. This sect of Taoism may worship gods but they do not believe these gods are the creators of the universe, the Tao is. But I don't know the specific gods they worship, I would love to learn that tho.
Even tho I'm a Christian, I love to learn about different religions and philosophies. I actually think the philosophies are cooler to learn about, well except Christianity I like that one the most obvi.
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We are both good ones yay!
Sydney wrote: "ash ³³ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ wrote: "what i'd actually be interested in hearing is how do you all classify pagans? those of you who may be less educated, are there any stereotypes you have about paganism? i thi..."I agree! I also believe that pagans are classified as those who do not believe in the true God (at least according to my beliefs), but I don't think that they should be treated any different as those who believe similar or the same as I do. I'm a bit struggling to like talk about this bc i don't know how to say it politely, bc i dont mean to say "I think your god isn't real bc of what i believe in" so im sorry if it comes across that way, it is not my intention.😭
girl it's totally okay to say you don't believe in another god, that's the truth right? and no one wants you to deny you of your own religious identity, you were super respectful (like adding the 'at least according to my beliefs'), it's only bad if you are discounting and invalidating others beliefs if that makes sense
