Calling Atheists Pagans

marty1985

I should apologise in advance for a dumb thread.

Something caught my attention in the hilarious Tesco thread. Someone referred to atheists as "pagans". This is something that has bugged me since I was a child.

When I was a boy I was in a table quiz. I had always enjoyed entering table quizes but had never won one. I was on a team with three other kids, and at the end of the quiz, we were joint top, and so it came down to a tie breaker. The tension was high. The room was silent. My heart was beating in my little chest. The question:

A person who doesn't believe in God is called what?

Pagan!

No.

Pagan.

I'm sorry that's not right.

Not right?

Atheist.

What?

An atheist.

My heart broke loose and sank like a stone. I lost because of that answer and that was as close as I ever came to winning. I had always heard of people who didn't believe in God as pagans. I had never heard the word atheist. So, please refer to atheists as atheists, and pagans as pagans. Spare a thought for the poor child who summoned up all his strength to avoid crying on the long drive home.

dvae

i think pagans believe in sun gods and the hole winter/summer solstice thing, so in fact you could probably say pagans don't believe in god (at least the god christens believe in).

(q) what do you call a person who doesn't believe in god? answer: a person

Overheal

Pagans by my understanding are still Theists, they just don't believe in Jesus, The Father, Holy Ghost etc. version held by faithful Christians. I've even heard other religions referred to as Pagans, such as Hindu and Bhuddism. But yes Etymologically it started with references to worshippers of "Old Gods" such as Sun Gods, and I believe it was a popular term while Christianity was spreading across Ireland to refer to the religious beliefs held on to by many Celts at the time. Incidentally, I don't believe I have ever heard of Native Americans being referred to as such, despite worshiping spirits found in nature. though they wouldn't call it worshiping: more communing with.

mdebets

Historically, all non-Christians have been called Pagan (by Christians).
These days Pagan (especially if someone calls it himself) means a believer in one of the New religious movements (e.g. Wicca, Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism, or something similar).

An Atheist on the other hand is someone who doesn't believe in any higher power at all.

Pompey Magnus

mdebets wrote: »

Historically, all non-Christians have been called Pagan (by Christians).
These days Pagan (especially if someone calls it himself) means a believer in one of the New religious movements (e.g. Wicca, Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism, or something similar).

And in a further historical note to make things even less clear, during the polytheistic Roman empire Christians were regarded as Atheists up until Constantine, a charge then reversed by the Christians in retaliation.

So we had (1) Pagans describing Christians as Atheists, (2) Christians describing Pagans as Atheists and now (3) Christians descibing Atheists as Pagans.

Get it right people!