What does pagan mean?

Answer 1

Those who do not believe in Jesus as son of God and the stories in the Bible are called pagans.

Answer 2

Aside from The Religious Definition

It's Part of a California Accent

Like when A Californian Says

"Do You Want To Go To The Beach"

It Sounds More Like "wengobeach"

So Pagan is what they would say
if say you were to perhaps walk out of an amusment Park
& Forget to Get your Hand Stamped
So you Could Get Back in W/o Having To Pay Again
If Ya Couldn't Get Back in, But wanted to Real Badly

A Californian Would Say

"Pagan" ;-)

Answer 3

Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "an old country dweller, rustic") is a term which, from a Western perspective, has come to connote a broad set of spiritual or cultic practices or beliefs of any folk religion, and of historical and contemporary polytheism religions in particular.

The term can be defined broadly, to encompass the faith traditions outside the Abrahamic monotheistic group of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The group so defined includes the Dharmic religions, Native American religions and mythologies and Shinto as well as non-Abrahamic ethnic religions in general. More narrow definitions will not include any of the world religions and restrict the term to local or rural currents not organized as civil religions. Characteristic of Pagan traditions is the absence of proselytisation, and the presence of a living mythology which explains religious practice.

The term "Pagan" is a Christian adaptation of the "Gentile" of Judaism, and as such has an inherent Christian or Abrahamic bias, and pejorative connotations among Westerners, comparable to heathen, infidel, and mushrik and kafir (كافر) in Islam. For this reason, Ethnologists avoid the term "Paganism", with its uncertain and varied meanings, in referring to traditional or historic faiths, preferring more precise categories such as polytheism, shamanism, or animism.

Since the later 20th century, however, the words "Pagan" or "Paganism" have become widely and openly used as a self-designation of adherents of polytheistic reconstructionism and neo-Paganism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism
http://www.religioustolerance.org/paganism.htm

Answer 4

The original meaning was a "country dweller" or "village dweller." It was eventually associated with the idea of being "rustic" and over time, it was lumped in with anything that was considered a folk religion.

In our day and age, a Pagan or Neo-Pagan is someone who believes in a religion that is earth based and polytheistic.

Answer 5

PAGAN -

Traditional designation of a practitioner of classical polytheisms. The early Christians often used the term to refer to non-Christians who worshiped multiple deities. Christian missionaries frequently sought to stamp out pagan practices by building churches on the sites of pagan shrines or by associating Christian holidays with pagan rituals (e.g., linking Christmas with the celebration of the winter solstice). The term pagan was also used to refer to non-Christian philosophers, and in the 20th century it was used to identify members of certain new religious movements.-

Answer 6

Pagan means different things in different contexts. The word pagan (not capitalized) generally refers to anyone who doesn't follow the socially accepted or dominant religion of the area (generally Christianity, but it can be different) or who doesn't adhere to popular values.

The word Pagan (capitalized) refers to a number of religions that are generally Nature or Earth based (but not always) and/or usually Polytheistic (but not always) and/or based on pre-Christian or traditional belief systems (but not always).

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

Answer 7

Pagan is usually a way to refer to anyone not of your established religion (according to Google). It's usually related to those who subscribe to primitive religions i.e. Wicca, Voodoo, Shamanism.

Of course, in this day and age, its use is considered to be offensive so we just use the term "non-Christian, non-Muslim" etc...

Answer 8

It was a slur in ancient Rome maning "country-dweller" with kind of the feel of "redneck" or "hillbilly" in America. It was supposed to make the non-Christian folk who lived outside of the city feel bad and lesser. It has since been reclaimed to mean practitioners of any of the old religions of Europe and other polytheistic religions of old.

Answer 9

Non-Christians.

Answer 10

It means youre not in an orthodox religion