Defining Paganism..

[TheTempestuous1]

http://altreligion.about.com/library/weekly/aa042102a.htm


Thoughts? Opinions? How do *you* define paganism?

[flar7]

I go by the dictionary.

[Myst]

There's a thread or two about this in Political I think (for those who are reading this thread wondering what I mean, this article is about the Pagan Unity stuff).

Basically I agree with the author. We had a rousing discussion about this tho so search for it.

[Myst]

p.s. this is unrelated but could you please take out all the extra spaces after your sig? It's taking up half the page by itself :)

[Phoenix Blue]

Here's the link: So Vote it Be Campaign Begins (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17929)

[talamh]

i have always thought of "pagan" as meaning those of us who are not "people of the book".... meaning those who do not follow the writings that to varying degrees of inclusion, include the Bible, the Torah and the Quoran.

Expecting pagans to have a spiritual or cultural unity is to ignore the diversity that not having any one central "authority" allows.

And i'm personally leary about any one group purporting to speak politically on behalf of pagans in general. It just doesn't work that way.

My feeling is that it's better to work with existing human rights groups for true protection of the right of "freedom of religion/spirituality"... and use that freedom as a back-up when and if i ever need it. bb talamh

[TheTempestuous1]

yeah I know myst, I don't know how to fix it.. I didn't press enter or anything after the last line so..?

EDIT: Nevermind I think I fixed it.. I don't know how the extra spaces got in there in the first place! :eek:

[Lauralu]

"pagan" to me is just who I am. The word literally means, what? "woods-dweller"? But, can you really define every sect of paganism with just one word? Like, if you say s/he is a "Christian" people think they believe in Christ and the Bible and they do, right? And when a person says they're "pagan", people think multiple gods, right? No one really thinks about all the different denominations and sects and traditions, so what does that really matter if you get the basic meaning of the word? As long as the basic meaning is pretty correct, right? Should it really matter all that much, anyway, if you know depp down what you like and what you believe, even if no other being on the face of the earth believes that? I am pagan. That's all. That's who I am and it's a part of me....I really don't have a single word definition for it.