What is paganism? Who are the people who practise it and what does it instill in people?

Question

I am Christian but am not sure what it means though all through history they keep mentioning paganism and how it was evil. Is that idol worship?

Answer 1

Pagant Gods are man made. They make any form of image out of gold, silver, stone or any metal handy. The whole community would worship that & offer sacrifises, which greatly displeases God( father of jesus).

Still the worship of pagent Gods exist.

Answer 2

By certain definitions, paganism is anything that is not Judeo Christian. No, not evil. People all over the world practice it. Because of the broadness of the definition, it's difficult to narrow down specific beliefs as being "pagan". It's not really a religion or set of beliefs. It's more of a term used to describe non-christian faiths. As far as Idol worship? That depends on the pagan. Though, most of the ones I know, don't worship anything in the traditional sense.

Answer 3

I am a pagan witch, you ask about evil, it depends on the magick one performs, the three magicks, white meaning good, gray meaning kind of shaded, and black, magick performed for ones own gratification and may cause harm to others. I will not tell you what magick I perform.
Beliefs: that there are many gods and goddesses, each of these gods/goddesses has a purpose to call on. Say you wish to have a new love, you may call upon Aphrodite to help you, and so forth. There is no idols, only objects that may help in cerimonies and certain items that may be pleasing to the gods/goddesses. When calling upon Aphrodite, burning a rose insence, and a pink candle helps. This is said to be pleasing to her.
Paganism is a gentle religion, it is not to be feared. It is also not a fearing religion. It is of the love of the earth. It is calming, and understanding. Paganism and wicca are very close, but different.
Witchcraft was the first known religion. As pagans feel, all the gods and goddesses are there, but it was just to much for some people to comprehend, little by little, they started to chip away at the gods, and narrowed it down to the one god, which is now the christian god.
There is one big misunderstanding; Pagans are devil worshipers, we are not, in order to worship the devil one must believe in the christian god, and pagans do not.

Answer 4

1. An umbrella term encompassing many, many versions of polytheistic and/or earth centered non-xian beliefs, traditions, and religions, some based on ancient pre-exian folkways, some not.
2. Pagans, unless they have a more specific term for themselves, like Wiccan, Druid, or Asatru/Heathen (Heathen = reconstructed Northern European/Germanic traditions and beliefs exclusively). We are everyone.
3. Tolerance, respect for nature, dignity, moderateness, compassion, sense of humor . . .
4. Technically speaking, the OT is *not* history. That Jehovah did not like the "competition" doesn't actually make it "evil." Bear in mind that Conversion Age historical accounts were ALSO written by the Church, and salt accordingly.
5. No. "Idol worship" is a misnomer. The godh/esses are worshipped *through* a "graven image" sometimes, but are not the same AS their devotional images, anymore than Jesus IS the crucifix hanging in Catholic churches.

Answer 5

Paganism is an umbrella term that encompasses many different religions (Wicca, Asatru, Druid, Shaman, etc.). Those different religions have very different practices, but in general they have a couple of important points in common:

1) Polytheistic (belief in many gods or multiple aspects of the Divine)
2) Nature-based (focused on the cycles of nature and honoring the Earth as part of honoring the Gods that created it)

Beyond that, it depends on the specific religion.

It was branded as "evil" by religions that wanted to force its followers to convert (generally to Christianity), which is why you will see many pagan influences in Christianity - holidays, holiday symbolism, some Saints, etc.

Is it idol worship? No, it's simply honoring another face of the Divine. Just because it's not the Judeo-Christian concept of "God" doesn't mean that we don't honor and recognize a Higher Power.

Answer 6

The Jewsish religion speaks of the gentiles .
Tt refers to people who are not Jews .They are considered to be lower in spiritual maturity .

In the Christendon ,we have these two words.

1.Pagans ( there principle is called pagonism ).
Non-christians .Some times thery are found with idols and some times they are found with monotheistic belief like Muslims . Pagons never acepted Christianity .They stood against Christianity and its good and matuared principles .

2. Heathens ( worshipper of the gods of uncilized tribes,
wild and ill-mannered ,without moral training ,heathenish , and barbarious people .( They don't know the values of the highly sophisticated Christianity .

The Saxons who invaded England around AD 450 were heathens .

Thank you !

bro.sundar July 13,2007, 1:00 A.M

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Answer 7

The Roman empire forced people to worship their rulers AS gods. It was considered 'sacrilege' and was against the law to refuse to do so. It was also against the law to worship another god other than your local leader, and the leaders of the Roman Empire. The penalty was death, often by Crucifixion.

Many early Christians were crucified for this reason. That is why they had to be secret. You know that little fish symbol that Christians often have on their cars? That was a secret symbol to tell others that you were Christian.

Anyway, the people who went along and worshiped the Romans as gods, they (among others) were the main Pagans refered to in the bible.

Answer 8

People who do not understnd the religious practices of others , called them pagans -meaning non- believers and people without a religion.That was waht the white arrogancxe used to call everybody other than christians , because of their state power .
they felt that they were the final authority on anything including god .

Answer 9

This website explains a lot. . .the history of paganism and the present practice of paganism.

http://library.thinkquest.org/28111/the.htm

Answer 10

Contemporary paganism is restoration of indigenous religions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/history/modern_1.shtml
The term is also referred to those who are not Muslims, Christian or Jews. Please check the following web page to have an idea as a Christian.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11388a.htm

Answer 11

To a stonge religious person any person, that do not pratise their religion is a "pagan " and other religions are "paganism".