pagans

[edsbrick]

any there?

ed

[mordusxxx]

my mom is but not me  ;D

[TMA_1]

pagan, referring to wiccan? the word pagan can mean many things.

[mordusxxx]

lol ok ol3 wise one, wicca my mother is a wiccan witch lol better?

[TMA_1]

yes, better mordus ;)

probably deserved the sarcasm though.hehe

[mordusxxx]

hmm just didnt want u to think i was just posting for the sake of posting

[Acriku]

I thought it meant non-Christian (like gentile means non-Jew), which in that case I would be one. But as far as Wicca goes, I'm not really involved in that sort of stuff.

[thomas]

an example of pagans are the celtic druids.

christmas is based on a pagan holiday

oops didn't mean all pagans only meant

some were druids

[Caid Ivik]

Word "pagan" came from, I think, latin word for village. It was used for any cult worshipped in villages, like traditional magic practices or natural forces. Todays cults like Wicca and druidism are a neopagan wave, which is thing of maybe last century, altough it is based on ancient cults.

[Emperor Harkonnen]

christmas is based on a pagan holiday

not it is not based upon anything. it is the Brithday of Jesus Christ! "It's the most wounderful time of the year" :)

[Anathema]

Yes it was :P Christmas was originally a pagan festivity that was adopted by the catholic church to draw more members in.

[Dante]

And interestingly the word 'church' actually comes from a similar source. See the pagans used to build stone circles for their own reasons, and in order to attract believers the early christians often built their churches in these circles. Thus from 'circle' we get 'kirk,' the old word for church still used in parts of Scotland and probably elsewhere. From 'kirk' it was a quick step to the more English 'church.'

So even the 'churches' of the word have some blatant paganism hovering around them...

[Caid Ivik]

Christmas is celebrated since Council of Nicea, and word "pagan" is a thing of Middle Age...

[Acriku]

Caid, it's been relatively concluded that Christmas is based upon a pagan winter festivity, as there's been research to even conclude that the birth of Christ was not during December. Those whacky Christians  :D

[Caid Ivik]

Well, I heard researches, which tried to explain, that name of Santa Claus is based on Christmas Tree...

[Anathema]

Er...?

Santa Claus is derived from Saint Klaus (or whatever way you wish to spell him), the bisshop of Mira.

Thus from 'circle' we get 'kirk,' the old word for church still used in parts of Scotland and probably elsewhere.

It's called 'kerk' over here :)

[mordusxxx]

well i dont think ed wanted to know the explaination for were paganism came from he was just wondering if there are anyonline so are there?

[ordos45]

Nope not a Pagan.  I do know a few though.

[Dante]

I more or less dated one once. Never again...

[TMA_1]

that is the catholic church who made christmas on the winter sulstace simply to make pagans worship on christian holidays. Not all christians are catholics, dont be so closed minded people! lol

jesus was probably born in april, or around that time, that is indicated by the shepherds, the people outdoors and whatnot.

[Acriku]

Despite it being the Catholic Church who started it, all Christians generally celebrate Christmas.

[Caid Ivik]

"Catholic" means "common", better word have Germans, "allgemeine". Christos katolikos, originally in Greek. Early christianity was divided to town communities, we can say town churches, which had few central laws, trough which they identified themselves as a one Church. Sects, which existed in time of Nicean Council (when Christmas was defined) don't exist today, and first schismatic church, orthodox, parted from Rome about 7 centuries later...

[Anathema]

You could argue that it was Rome who seperated itself from the eastern church, because it all started because a Roman cardinal excommunicated a Byzanthian archbisshop (I think).

Anyway this is off topic.

[Edric O]

And interestingly the word 'church' actually comes from a similar source. See the pagans used to build stone circles for their own reasons, and in order to attract believers the early christians often built their churches in these circles. Thus from 'circle' we get 'kirk,' the old word for church still used in parts of Scotland and probably elsewhere. From 'kirk' it was a quick step to the more English 'church.'

So even the 'churches' of the word have some blatant paganism hovering around them...  ;D 

The English-speaking Churches, you mean. ;)

Not all Christians speak a germanic language (in fact, most Christians don't). A lot of Christianity-related words in germanic languages come from earlier Paganism-related words, but this is not true for romance or slavonic languages.

In Romanian, for example, the word for "church" is "biserica", which comes from the latin "basilica". The French "

[edsbrick]

im not a strict pagan, just believe in what i can see, feel etc.

The earth.

no divine entity has felt the need to show themselves to me,i am very inviting, that just leaves me disbelieving in any "formal,organised" religion.

i dont see how going to a building [church,mosque,synagogue,temple] then praying/chanting to invisible idols,or walking round salt circles,just because someone else told me to, will make me a better person who deserves redemption.

nah knickers to it all..

ed