| What is a Pagan? There is no straight forward | | | | within their religious scripts, more commonly referred |
| answer as it has several different meanings | | | | to as a heathen. Since the seventeenth century |
| depending on the context in which it is used. The | | | | heathen has oftentimes been replaced by Pagan. |
| most widely accepted definitions of both Pagan and | | | | To Pagans it simply means those who practice a |
| Paganism derive from the Latin word paganus | | | | nature based religion. Neopagans are newer religions |
| meaning "rustic', "of the country" or "rural". Even this | | | | tracing their beginnings to the 20th century, but their |
| is not considered the only definition of a Pagan as it | | | | roots much farther back, and they do refer to |
| can be considered a skunk word, which means that it | | | | themselves as Pagans. Druids, Witches and Wiccans |
| has a different meaning to different people. | | | | are some examples of the followers of Neopaganism. |
| The most common usage is associated with any | | | | Christianity has also been seen as Pagan by other |
| religion that is non-Abrahamic. Neither Christian, Muslim | | | | Abrahamic religions and between different Christian |
| or Jew. That would make roughly 45% of the world's | | | | religions. These accusations come largely from the |
| population Pagans. Needless to say those 45% are | | | | practice of christianization which adopts others beliefs |
| not likely to class themselves as Pagans although | | | | into Christianity. This is seen by the practice of |
| some would. | | | | celebrating Pagan feasts such as halloween or easter. |
| The term Pagan is also used in a derogatory fashion. | | | | As you can see, answering a simple question such as |
| People to hate or unbelievers. The main religions of | | | | What is a Pagan? is actually far from being easy as it |
| the world have frequent references to unbelievers | | | | has diverse meanings throughout the world. |