Can anyone tell me why People think Pagan=Devilworshiper????

Question

The reason for Pope Ogre' is I am a Discordian and all Discordian's are popes or momes. Ogre' just happens to be the name I use... I don't think the Catholic Pope is an Ogre' Because I'm not him....

I said People so as not to offend anyone

Answer 1

Because of prejudice going back to the beginnings of the Christian domination of the Mediterranean. The legalization of the Christian religion struck the spark that later became the flames of LEGALIZED persecution

For a timeline of the persecution check the following link:http://www.ysee.gr/index-eng.php?type=english&f=lovestories

This was BEFORE the Middle Ages in Western Europe where images of Pan and Cernunnos were conflated with the Christian Devil....

Answer 2

You've received a lot of answers about this, and while a lot of them are true, to an extent, none of them were very complete.

Lets look first at pagan beliefs. Many were polytheistic, and one archetype that persists through almost all of them is the Horned God. Cernunos was one name for Him; He was the Green Man of the forest, the Lord of the Hunt. In the summer months, he was responsible for the all of the things which dwelt within the woods. In the winter, He "died" and became Lord of the Underworld. In this guise, he was responsible for the hunt--and, not incidentally, making sure people had enough food to get them through the winter when nothing would grow. He could sometimes be harsh, but was never evil.

Now along come the Christians, eager for converts. One of their earliest and most effective tactics was to compare the pagan's Horned God to their figure of Satan. ("Look--they both have horns! and goat feet! They must be the same thing!") By presenting the Horned God as evil to those who had already converted, they were then able to use the recent converts to put pressure on those who resisted the new religion.

Unfortunately, this attitude persists. The Christian church has, either implicitly or explicitly, called pagans "devil worshipers" for so long, that many people believe it without bothering to inquire further.

Answer 3

I don't think pagans are devil worshippers.
I think pagans celebrate man within nature, rather than who I worship - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I will not stand in judgement, as it's not my position to do so.
When I ask questions, I do try to gear them towards all people - not just a single sect of people because I enjoy getting different responses. It helps me learn more about others.
It would be very boring if everyone agreed with each other. I like the variety, even if there is some occassional negativity.

Thanks for asking. Blessed Be.

Marianne

Answer 4

Plain and simple ignorance. Pagans do not worship something that doesn't exist for them. The concept of devil or Satan is a Christian one not Pagan.
By the way, the pope's not an ogre, he's just a Nazi bastard.
I just love it when people say "God said this or that". How do they know? Were they there? Did God tell them?

Answer 5

Why in the world did anyone give PJ a thumbs down on this? MANY MANY people form ALL kinds of ideas about ALL kinds of things from Hollywood Movies. Here the man gives an honest answer to an honest question and someone comes along and gives him a thumbs down. SHAME on whoever it was.

I never knew much about Pagan's really until I came to R&S and read q&a posted by Pagans. I never equated in my mind Paganism with Devil Worship.

I know that some people on here think of ANYTHING not Christian is devil worship - they even quote the Bible to try and prove this point.

To me, if you're not running around shouting "I worship you satan, everything I do I do for you Beezlebub!" you're not a devil worshiper.

Answer 6

Not sure why most people believe what they do, but from a Judeo-Christian perspective, it is part of our doctrine.

The Hebrews were taught this under the Mosaic law; consider it in the restatement of the law Deuteronomy 32:17 "They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals"

And Christians are taught the same in the Bible. Paul states this in 1 Corinthians 10:20 "Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God"

Both statements make it clear that paganism was worshipping demonic powers.

Answer 7

It's left over from when (sorry, I don't want to offend, It's historical stuff) the Christians were trying to convert as many people as they could, and so they tried to prove that the other religions were wrong or evil by discrediting them. Also, for some reason people see a penticle and they freak. The same thing has happend to the Celts; all Celts are bloodthirsty barbarians. The same thing happened to the Christians when Christianity first started out, the Romans taught that Christians were cruel, evil sub-human creatures who it was okay to torture and kill.

P.S
WHY is everyone assuming that the asker meant Christians when he asked his question? Arn't you yourselves being woefully ignorant? I'm not religous myself but I see no reason to deleberately be rude about people who are. Very small minded.

Answer 8

Followers of the Abrahamic religions do because they have been taught to hate us for 2000 years.This originally happened because in order to try and convert people to Christianity and Islam they started telling Pagans that our gods were really demons and we really worshipped Satan and would burn in hell etc.

Not all Christians and Muslims and Jews still think we worship Satan-some now have a clue and a lot more respect than their ancestors did.

Answer 9

You know that is an interesting question. I saw someone who has a BA in Religion suggest it was church history. I have a M Div and never had that opinion from any of my readings or study.

To be real honest as I think of it, most of my concepts I believe have come from Hollywood. Not the Dragnet movie for me, I knew it was a comedy. But some of the earlier horror movies dwelt around pagans and covens that were always sacrificing some beautiful blond as part of their worship of the devil. I suspect that influenced my thinking as I had no other education on the matter.

Pastor John

Addendum: Thanks Mel. But I suspect the thumbs down came from a Christian. :-) I understand what the Bible says about Baal worshippers and other ancient pagans. But that doesn't tell me anything about modern pagans whom I don't suspect worship Baal and I know little about their religion except what Hollywood taught.

Answer 10

Most often, this is a very common interpretation of a very simple faith tenet.

"Only by your faith in (your faith here), you will live beyond this Life."

This is something common to quite a few faiths, and is a marked sign of intolerance, when it is combined with the also quite common, "If you aren't with us, then you are against us."

The term devil in this instance of "devil worship" is indicative of the idea that there is a Savior, and a Destroyer. This, in turn, combines with the idea that all others not believing in your Savior, are misled or misleading, and so serving the Destroyer.

Frankly, I believe that the Faith is important, not the Name you invoke. But that's me.

Good Luck and Goddess Bless.