A lot of people seem to feel that “pagan” refers to a specific religion worshipping a specific God & Goddess. I always believed that “pagan” referred to a wide range of religions. My dictionary defines it as “anyone who is not Christian, Muslim, or Jewish; a heathen; an idolator; one who has no religion.”
When I participated in the Student Pagan Association in college (a mere two years ago), I was informed that the non-religious no longer counted as “pagan.”
Though I was willing to concede that the current connotation may refer to certain ancient polytheistic European religions and certain new-age religions rather than all religons but three, I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that the word now defines one singular religion.
So, what’s the Straight Dope? Did I miss a re-writing of the dictionary? Or are all of these new “pagans” misinformed about the word they are using to define themselves?
It is really a matter of a word’s meaning changing over time through determined usage by people who want to own it. If enough people believe their use of “Pagan”, it now has that meaning as well as the old one.
Many Fundamentalist Christians will still refer to me as a “Pagan”, even though I worship the God of Abraham.
When I was a loosely defined, eclectic Pagan, I used “Heathen” because it made people think. Many immediately think “Wiccan” when you say Pagan.
Nobody really owns a word, especially when they want to use it to define themselves. Let people have their labels and continue to use a word as you understand it. It’s your word t.
One further question (although I wouldn’t mind my original question being answered further as well), with so many who seem to think that “pagan” means their particular brand of pagan, how can the word mean anything at all?
Infact I remember reading an old poem about a pirate, which said that they should fear him (to paraphrase the poem:)“whether they be, Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan” (please note I don’t have the original infront of me and all I can remember about the entire poem itself is this one line)
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean! Back in the day pagan meant some hick, or to be less abrasive a ‘rustic’. Now get your hemp smelling ass off my porch or I’ll smite you with a thunderbolt.
Sometimes it seems everybody wants to be a lexicographer. I’ve learned to be flexible on this stuff. For some folks, a pagan is that guy over there who goes to a different church where they don’t allow no snakes or speaking in tongues. Others are saying, “Hey! I am too a pagan, dagnabbit!”
I’ll try not to be too “sourcastic.” Don’t y’all be paygin’ yore definitions to no single source. A little confusion is good exercise for the brain, and a furrowed brow is good for the facial muscles.
My brother-in-law, for example, said he tried going to Choir Practice for three straight weeks, but it didn’t do his back any good.
Didn’t Pagan come from Ancient Rome as a term for people, who lived outside of cities, who still worshipped the old Gods (Zeus and what not). I heard that from my Religion teacher, and it always made some sense to me. In other words, there could not be modern pagans, okay, I guess someone could still believe in Zues…
Is this where the word came from, or was I robbed of not only my money, but of my college 'learning?
Eh. I usually refer to myself as a pagan (note the small p). I’m not part of the “sorta-organized” Pagan movement, and I am certainly no part of the Wicca crowd.
I am pagan at heart. I am in awe of nature, and the forces of nature. I feel a kinship with the legends of old, when I read of the ancient faiths.
I am likely to pray to Lugh to help me in something than I am anyone else. However, I’m not usually much of a praying man.
I haven’t done any sort of spellwork in close to 10 years, and even then what I was doing would have been considered “Hermetic” anyways.
> Didn’t Pagan come from Ancient Rome as a term for people,
> who lived outside of cities, who still worshipped the old Gods
> (Zeus and what not). I heard that from my Religion teacher,
> and it always made some sense to me. In other words, there
> could not be modern pagans, okay, I guess someone could still
> believe in Zues…
>
> Is this where the word came from, or was I robbed of not only
> my money, but of my college 'learning?
It originally meant “country dweller” in Latin. See this URL:
You know, all you have to do to look up a word online is to Google on “dictionary” and look in one of the online dictionaries. You could also buy a dictionary.
Um, I’ve looked it up in several dictionaries. My whole reason for posting was that the definition in every dictionary I’ve ever seen is different from what most people that I know mean when they use the word.
I was talking to Meatros, not to you, Cessandra. He asked where the word came from, and I was pointing out that he could have found out that by looking in a dictionary.
