paganism-polytheism-panth

'Pagan' is just an offensive term, used by the Christian Church to mock non-Christians. Same thing with other such terms: 'heathen', 'gentile', 'infidel', 'idolater', 'paynim', 'heretic'.

Gentile: This is what I found on the etymology of "Pagan":

"pagan late 14c., from L.L. 'paganus'
'pagan' in classical L. 'villager, rustic, civilian'
from pagus 'rural district'
originally 'district limited by markers' thus related to pangere 'to fix, fasten' from PIE base *pag- 'to fix' (see pact).

Religious sense is often said to derive from conservative rural adherence to the old gods after the Christianization of Roman towns and cities; but the word in this sense predates that period in Church history, and it is more likely derived from the use of paganus in Roman military jargon for 'civilian, incompetent soldier' which Christians (Tertullian, c.202; Augustine) picked up with the military imagery of the early Church (e.g. milites "soldier of Christ," etc.). Applied to modern pantheists and nature-worshippers from 1908."

From: http://www.etymonline.com

So it originated from Ancient PAGAN Rome as a "put down". ;)

Paganism is not really a religion. Rather it is an umbrella term which refers to a large group of religions.

Traditionally it was used to describe any religion other than the so-called "Religions of the Book", in other words religions other than Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. However, many major religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism do not consider themselves to be Pagan.

In modern terminology the term Pagan or Neo-Pagan is used to describe those religions which are rooted in the pre-Christian religions of Europe and the Middle East such as Wicca, Asatru, Druidism, and the various Reconstructionist beliefs.

-Lark-

Great point, Lark!

I'd like to point out that Satanism DOES fall under the umbrella term of paganism, and is inherently a "pagan" religion.

i see many mages here and elsewhere treat satanism with an air of disdain, not because they disagree with it, but because other religions do, and they want to be accepted.

That's a pretty big accusation Epimetheus. Have you polled these people to see if that's their view or are you guessing?

I would find it much easier to believe many people dislike Satanism because of misinformation or programed misinformation stemming from previous religious encounters than I would that they simply want to be in the "in crowd" so to speak.

Isn't accepting misinformation and programmed misinformation the same as just following the accepted norm, seeing as thought most people do honestly just follow what they hear blindly, very few actually put in the effort to do the actual studying for themselves, yes, on this site there are more who study up than in the norm, but if one enters general society all one encounters is misinformation, so i can agree with Epimet there, and no one unfortunately cannot pole it, unless one is willing to make religious generalizations to find the people to poll eg. will all the christians that think the devil is evil please stand up..
no religion likes to be singled out for questions which may go against their own understandings or shatter or shake their belief ''structure'' and i use the term structure very loosely.

Paganism is more a religion though, I think. Some modern versions borrow heavily from neo-Hermetic practices, and even the term Sabbat is essentially JudaioChristian. Then you have those who reject the idea of paganism outside of specific cultural traditions.

Theistic Satanism would most certainly fall under Paganism.

Gentile word "infidel" is being used more by the Muslims than by the Christians. Don't forget that Islam dislikes witches more than Christianity.

Of the topic sorry.