do any of you pagans know this?

Question

you claim to know everything pagan, but the early figures of fertility woman were because they didnt understand back then that sex led to pregnancy, they just thought it was earth magic, also did you know early pagans,, were not called pagans,, that is just a modern name, and early earth worshippers practiced human sacrifice, to give back to the earth, go on a dig sometime and learn some things,, not just out of barnes and noble while you sip your latte

THEY DIDNT UNDERSTAND THE SCIENCE OF IT ,, GEEEZ WHAT A MORON

Answer 1

Wow thanks for that education!! Just looking at your sentence structure shows me you must know A LOT!

Pagans do understand our history and don't shrink from it like christians do.

Your logic in the use of the name pagan is about the same as asking if Jesus was a christian.

As for the human sacrifice, any idiot who has taken a history class knows that many pre-Iron Age societies practiced human sacrifice.

How about skipping the latte and actually reading up on the murderous, bloody history of the Christian church instead of trying to "educate" pagans to things we already know. I'm sure you'll be in for a shock, so on second thought, get a double espresso- you're going to need it.

If not, how about an English course?

Answer 2

You are only partly right.

The bible mentions pagans many times. It is not modern. A pagan was a country dweller or person of the hearth. Early Christianity is responsible for the term pagan being so widly used.

Some very rare occasions some primitive people may not have known sex led to pregnacy, but it is well documented that most ancient culters did.

Please be careful, most of the time when we accuse others of something we find we are the guilty party. Have a good New Year my friend.

Yes I know I mispelled a few things but an old cheerakee once told me to not wrti thing perfectly because we need to let the demons a way out.

Answer 3

In reverse order:
Why, yes, we knew that. Animal sacrifice, too. However, human sacrifice stopped *long* ago, and animal sacrifice has become rather rare.

We also know that the ancients didn't call themselves Pagan (in a religious sense) - at least, not until the Christians started the trend. There's a few instances of then using it after Christianity started coming to power, but, for the most part, self-identification is a modern thing.

And, honestly, if you think that they didn't know that sex led to pregnancy, you're selling them short. They might not have known the science of it, nor told you about sperm or eggs - but even the Old Testament has some of the basics of the bird and the bees. I think it's safe to say that even cave men understood that you needed to mate to make babies.

Answer 4

First of all, just like when your opponent shouts out "I know martial arts" before the fight begins, those who go around saying that they understand or know everything about ANYTHING,, they probably know barely anything about it.

So I know that I don't know everything about all varieties of paganism. But I do know about the basis of Matriarchy....but the Goddess figures was not 'made for' the magick that the women used to create children, the Goddess figures were made to ennable anyone, in particular wandering men, away from the village, away from women, away from the standard ways of connecting with the Goddess, to be able to connect with the Goddess.
Of course when everyone is a Pagan, there's no need to create a name for us, then we were just humans. It wasn't until massively organized religions managed thru big city churches that required the forceful conversions of others that we started emulating and taking on the labels of the far-rural dwellers.

Well, all kinds of sacrifice, really, and having participated in the sacrifice of the blood of a sheep just before it was butchered, it does work, the fertility of the land recovers and the deities being dealt with become happy.....so I don't understand why it's okay to sacrifice the spirit of someone condemned to death to nothing in particular, and yet not okay to sacrifice someone condemned to death to a specific deity. If sacrifice didn't work at all, then the Christians would be SOL, and that if you find sacrificing humans abhorent or wasteful, how much worse must it be to sacrifice a divine human?

Answer 5

Who claims to know everything? All persons who identify as "pagan" or all pagans that you have met? That's a curious remark to make.

I can't claim to know what went through the ancients heads, especially those from the earliest civilizations who only left behind ambiguous clues and no written texts. I'm sure a lot of folks wouldn't be surprised if the basic idea of sex was grasped, but I'd have to think that most would agree it's conjecture. Unless you have some powerful ability that allows you to travel back in time for interviews. ;)

Obviously the earliest animists and polytheists did not refer to themselves by the Latin term, "pagan." Many early civilizations had no word for their religion. It was an integral part of society and daily life.

*Some* early religious cults practiced human sacrifice, but archeological evidence has not shown that this was the case for all of them.

Seems to me that you need to take a stroll through some of the more academic sections of bookstores and libraries yourself before you start pulling out the grandiose remarks. And I'm strictly a hot cocoa drinker, for the record. :) Happy New Year.

Answer 6

As Ipaganus and Steve T mentioned, paganus (plural pagani) means country dweller, and that's important because as the Roman Church began to convert the pre-existing religions (mostly pantheistic and goddess worshipping), the changes would begin in the city and spread far more slowly to the country. For example, in England--in Londinium, where a lot of Romans were hanging around, Christianity caught on a lot faster than out in the rural woods where people had practiced their Celtic beliefs for centuries. Thus, the folks out in the country still believed in the old ways. Thus they were pagans. The word "heathen" has the same reasoning behind it, because the "heath" is also the countryside.

As for not knowing where babies came from--I think that connects to the theory that the earliest peoples may not have recognized the complete role men had in babymaking, and I've heard that too. One of many reasons the earliest cultures were matrilineal (and I'm glad you recognize that) is because it was easy to tell who a baby's mother was, but not so easy to pinpoint who the baby's father was. Once the culture became more agrarian, and breeding animals clarified how the role of the father worked in establishing characteristics of the child, the idea of patrilineal succession began to take root--between that and the "urbanization" of people, starting to wall themselves up in cities to defend against warlike hoardes, the idea of warrior kings (and thus warrior gods) took root, and the Judaic culture came about. This is why one theory of the "Garden of Eden" story is that it's a parable for the loss of the Goddess culture (represented by Eve and the snake) and the rise of the God culture.

I don't claim to know everything pagan, but I do know this much. And check out info about Catal Huyuk, one of the earliest neolithic sites, for more information about ancient peoples. In particular, notice how peaceful they seem to have been--few weapons, and lots of art.

Answer 7

Where did youget that from? Even the caveman knew sex was breading and led to babies. Not earthen magic. There are only two species on this planet that have sex for pleasure, humans and Dolphins. All animals have a natural instint to reproduce their kind. And it is Pegan not Pagan. Pegan is a word the christians around 325 ad used to describe any group not following christian beliefs. Most "Pegan" groups did not offer human sacrifice because they prized life so much. They offered the harvest, not humans. Some religions today still offer goats, dogs and cows, but very view.

Answer 8

Pagan, paganus comes from Latin word, country person, not a modern derivation. I imagine they knew why babies happened. Better go back to Barnes and Noble and do a little more reading. I recommend Pagan Theology by Dr. Michael York. Skip the latte, too expensive for us country people.

Answer 9

Oh shock horror yes i knew this but if you dig a bit deeper you will find that the people used in the scarifices where mostly thieves murderers but thankfully the pagan religions have moved forward if you look in each religion there is dirt to dish out

No matter what religion the worshippers of past and present will always believe their way is the right way

Answer 10

They didn't know that sex led to pregnacy? Au contrair. All animals have it hardwired into their brains that sex=babies, even if they don't conciously recognise it. And humans do and did conciously recognise it. And this is coming from a non-pagan, btw.

Hmmm? Don't think that early human "could possibly understand"? Our problem as a species is that we are so naive that we think we are so much smarter than any of our ancestor, and everybody else, for that matter. Have you ever heard of the library of Alexandria? And how it burned away a mellinia of knowledge? And how we today do not know everything that burned up? How there are mysteries to us thast they knew? Do not be so arrogant to say that us modern humans are superior to those in past.