Black Spirituality Religion : What's Wrong with Paganism?

river

Watch Her Flow
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Mar 22, 2004
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When I first left the Christian church folks here in the spirituality forum desperately wanted me to give my new beliefs a name. I just didn't feel a need to do so. The whole idea of slapping a label onto my beliefs means I have to buy a bill of goods and will be judged not by the validity of my beliefs but on how closely they conform to the label.

Still posters here wanted me to call it something so I made up something on the spot. I called it Starism. Later that day smaddy came back and said "Sista river I've looked all over the internet for Starism and can't find anything. Do you have any literature?" I like to fell out of my chair.

But now a lot has been said about paganism here lately. What exactly is paganism and what's wrong with it? I see it as any religion that's not Christianity, Judaism or Islam. But Coming from a Judeo-Christian background the implication is that any other religion is somehow invalid or primitive. Since I no longer hold Judeo-Christian beliefs I can no longer think of any religion as pagan.
 
Sadly, most who have issue with it cannot see the underlying universal theme to which all religions belong and attempt to accomplish--and that is aiding mankind in identifying itself with Creator, so that in like manner, mankind can co-create in harmony.

Their inability to conceive of the fact that Christianity (or Islam) itself came from "paganism" is driven and based upon FEAR. The irony is that this fear comes directly as a result of pagans telling them how to perceive, what to fear, etc. through reinterpretation of pagan material (bible) into "Christian" material.
 
Sadly, most who have issue with it cannot see the underlying universal theme to which all religions belong and attempt to accomplish--and that is aiding mankind in identifying itself with Creator, so that in like manner, mankind can co-create in harmony.

Their inability to conceive of the fact that Christianity (or Islam) itself came from "paganism" is driven and based upon FEAR. The irony is that this fear comes directly as a result of pagans telling them how to perceive, what to fear, etc. through reinterpretation of pagan material (bible) into "Christian" material.

Hey sista gogo,

I'd like you to elaborate more on what you are saying here where I enlarged the text.
thanx
 
The dictionary definition for paganism is 'country dweller' and 'heathen.'
When trying to convert people to christianity, the people in the cities were easier to reach. Those in the mountains, the country, and rural areas where harder to get too, so many of those people were more able to retain old spiritualities and religion - hence paganism being 'heathens' and 'country dwellers.' Many of the country dwellers were unconverted.

I was told that paganism is an umbrella term to include indigenous spirituality (such as native american and old african traditional.) But the Native Amers, Africans, and those who study ATR do not consider themselves pagan. Pagan is closely associated with Wicca and often used synonymously and interchangeably with the term Wicca. Wicca has euro roots of scott/irish/welch.

Like native american and african, paganism is an earth based spirituality which was why I was drawn to it in the beginning. Earth based spirituality is when the presence of god is considered to be all of that you see, feel, and hear in nature, including yourself (you're apart of nature). Nature is the omnipotence and essence that is god, and therefore nature itself it revered and worship as such. The underlying theme in earth based spirituality is living in harmony and balance with the larger natural world and not in defiance and opposition to it.

Christianity has a lot of pagan roots still present in the religion to this day, although most of them do not like to acknowledge those roots. Paganism includes instances of cosmic manipulation, commonly referred to as 'craft.' Christians think of 'craft' as black magic, witchcraft, and devil worship.
 

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