what is pagan?

Question

is it a form of religion? what does the practices require?

Answer 1

Definitions of pagan on the Web:

heathen: a person who does not acknowledge your god
a person who follows a polytheistic or pre-Christian religion (not a Christian or Muslim or Jew)
heathen: not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam
hedonist: someone motivated by desires for sensual pleasures
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

a practitioner of an Earth Religion; from the Latin paganus, a country dweller.
www.conjure.com/COG/idef.html

In Corinth, non-Jews were called Gentiles or pagans. The Latin word indicated a "country dweller," or someone outside the culture of the city.
gbgm-umc.org/umw/corinthians/glossary.stm

or Boyan, who finally concluded peace with the emperor. 11
www.bartleby.com/67/439.html

A generic term for a number of pre-Christian faiths – druids, witches. Pagan faith is linked to locality and to the Earth.
www.druidnetwork.org/lightning/glossary

(Pay-gun) - One who follows or practices an earth-based or nature religion.
www.moonbeamgarden.com/witchscottage/wiccan_pagan_glossary.htm

This word originally comes from Latin. 'Pagus' means a canton or district, or in other words a parcel of land, usually out in the country. A 'paganus' was one who lived on this parcel of land, usually working it as a farm or performing other rural tasks. 'Paganus' came to mean country folk. As Christianity came to various parts of Europe, the people in the towns and cities were converted, but those in the country were not. So country folk were non-Christian. ...
members.tripod.com/~jack_in_the_green/terms/terms.html

Someone who follows the old, Earth-centered religions.
www.thepeacefulplanet.com/glossary.html

from the latin paganus or country dweller; used as a term to describe followers of polytheistic religions.
www.museangel.net/terms.html

Of or pertaining to one of the polytheistic faiths indiginous to Europe. Literally means "country dweller". Unfortunately nowadays, due to extensive media disinformation, the word is being used as a synonym for Wicca.
www.winterscapes.com/uppsala/glossary.htm

A person who follows non christian or other socially established faiths. They are usually of an earth based faith or religion. This includes family's taught practices that might including witch craft, psychic gifts and the like.
thecronescorner.com/Definitions.html

One who is neither a Christian, a Jew, or a Moslem
www.innvista.com/culture/religion/diction.htm

Pre-Christian animistic or polytheistic practice.
www.partialobserver.com/davinci/Glossary.cfm

a follower of a nature-based religion. It is important to remember that all wiccans are pagan, but not all pagans are wiccan. There is a very wide variety of pagan religions, wicca is just one of them.
members.aol.com/fadeddragn/dictionary.html

Heathen, especially one who worshipped the gods of ancient Greece and Rome.
www.godonthe.net/dictionary/p.html

When used by Christians, this word basically means non-Christian. Therefore to Christians, all other world religions - Buddhism, Hindu, Wicca, etc - are considered 'pagan'.
www.geocities.com/cheshirekatz/gazebo/mythoterms.html

I use this as a broad blanket term for anyone who is not of Chritian, Moslem, or Jewish faiths. From the Latin word paganus, meaning country dweller (similar to heathen - who lives on the heath).
www.exploremaine.com/~lorelei/pi_glossary.htm

Answer 2

Paganism is any religion which is not Judaism, Christianity, usually Islam and sometimes Baha'ism.

Because this term means pretty much every religion ever, there are literally thousands of conflicting belief systems and practices. Some pagan religions have only one God, some have hundreds.

Modern Western paganism is a kind of hippy New Age thing, usually revolving around Earth-worship. It bears very little resemblence to actual pre-Christian religions.

Answer 3

Well, pagan means "of the hills" (Greek term) and was used to describe hill folk who practiced the "old religion"--that is, not the official state religions of Classical Greek and Roman times.

Roughly, Paganism is "earth religion" or rituals, or practices. Pagan, which can refer to any traditional religion from around the world, is mainly based on the change of seasons, weather, crops, constellations...recognizing natural patterns (and sometimes deifying those natural elements and patterns.)

It's folk religion, not-particularly-organized religion, natural religion. Sometimes, there are rituals and magic involved, but not necessarily.

Pagan stuff would be like, harvest festivals. Springtime dances. Honoring the moon phases. Asking forgiveness of an animal you kill and thanking it for sacrificing itself for your good.

Stuff like that.

Answer 4

Originally the word pagan meant someone who lived outside the city (which had been converted to Christianity) and just meant someone who wasn't properly educated and still believed in old ways. Similar to calling someone a "hick" or a "hill billy". Nowadays, pagan is an umbrella term to refer to dozens of non-Abrahamic faiths. Where the Abrahamic faiths are Jewish, Muslim, and Christianity (both Catholic and all the Protestant faiths).

No one is truly a pagan and someone who tells you so is a bit misinformed. Saying you are a pagan is akin to someone asking your name and you say "I'm not Fred". It tells you as much in what they believe as in someone telling you they follow the teachings of Abraham which could be any of a dozen faiths.

Blessed Be )O(

Answer 5

pagan or paganism is a umbrella term that is a earth based religion despite what is rumor we do not believe in the "devil" the horned God (Cernunnos worshiped before Christianity)after Christianity became popular is how they evolved their holidays around ours to convert us to that religion. and Cernunnos then became "the devil"

Pagan is a "umbrella" term because the subcategories of this is "Wicca" "druids" "Celts" and various of divination's. (runic, tarot, pendulums, etc) a good intro book is "Paganism an intro to earth centered religions" and "earth wisdom"

regarding rumors you might have heard "don't believe the hype"

Answer 6

Don't know about the other answers here, but I thought pagan meant "fault-gods." I could be wrong.

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism

read up. and don't just think it's about worshiping the devil because its mainly about the earthy elements and stuff.

Answer 8

http://www.sacredhearth.com/articles/whatispagan