| </span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (fedfem,)
G. Adams
Most Pagans I know would reject the overall definition you gave. Many Pagans(Old ways) are atheists.
While Wiccans and such call themselves Pagan, Pagans do not feel Wicca or any of the fluffy new age religions are Pagan.
Like all religions--trying to define or organize leads to divisions.<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
Wicca isn't New Age, its about 150 years old, and the women who reintroduced it (apologies I forgot her name) was working on a basis older than that.
Modern Druism is about 200 years old. Apart from little bits that have been taken from Caesers writings and the few other primary sources on the original druids, it is all new. Modern Druids have simply integrated Wiccan practice, celtic mythology and those little bits together to create there own spirituality.
A lot of the Asatru stuff is reliable, since norse worship only ended in Greenland (or Iceland, I forget which) only ended around 500-600 years ago.
In the New Age movement many people looked into these religions because they reflected the values of the new age. But none of the above ones are themselves new age.
Paganism is, as I stated an overarching title for any religion or spirituality that came before the big monotheistic religions. My own experience of pagans, people that fall under that umbrella, have been Wiccan or Druid. So I can only relate what I know of them.
However of all pagans I've never met an atheist one. Surely they would just class themselves as atheists?
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Winston Churchill |