Let me rephrase (i'd quote, but you're right above me)
I define religion by simplest of definitions. It's a set, defined way of practicing your beliefs. Praying is an act of religion. You fold your hands, you lower your head and you speak in a specific way. Spiritual, at least by Cooper definition, is almost like being agnostic. You acknowledge a higher power of sorts but have no set, defined practice through which you worship or seek aid.
I made the distinction because people assume that because I don't believe in God and I'm not jewish (and I in no way meant that people here were like that, just a habit) that I must be one of those crazy Wiccan kids looking to make (at this point they stop and realize I'm a boy) his penis bigger and am not religious.
In my opinion, you must be spiritual to be religious, but spiritual people aren't religious.
Those are my ten cents.
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hinduism does have wild theatrics, one of the godesses has four arms, each holding four different weapons (sword, staff, sickle, and something else), she is all black, wears a garland of severed heads, has a blood red tongue which always hangs out of her mouth, wears a short skirt made of tiger skin, long tangled hair, and drinks blood!!!! she rides a tiger too
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Paganism is the coolest I think. Pagans were the ones after all who invented science, mathematics, law etc and apparently it's the fasted growing religion in America.
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Xdea Wrote:Paganism is the coolest I think. Pagans were the ones after all who invented science, mathematics, law etc and apparently it's the fasted growing religion in America.
Two questions. 1. What specifically do you mean by Paganism (I wonder if Aussie English differs from English English over this)? 2. With regards to what they invented, WHAT?
Fred
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
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Paganism is pretty much any religion with more than one God, what I mean by it's the fastest growing religion in America is that it would go Paganism --> Wicca, Wicca is a branch of paganism but with a set of rules and has a different focus, but borrows ideas and beliefs from the ancient pagan religions. Paganism as a whole is said to date back to 128 000years, the first God wasn't a male deity either but a female deity, a mother Goddess, the earth, as well as other Goddess's for hunting and etc. The first people didn't understand how babies were made so they thought that women were the creators of life. It was then later on they brought the idea of a male deity after understading that both males and females are needed to create life, so too they thought they were needed to create the world. -Some doubt about this, was pulled from The Complete Book of Witchcraft.
There was a youtube link to a guy who was talking about similarities between Jesus and Mithras/Osiris/Horus but I can't find the video I watched but there was a part how he was explaining how the ancients didn't have a backward belief system but was rather complex and I should of chosen better words, I guess I can't say invented as science would of been there but not actually realized at the time but the pagans were definately the first to put it in use as seen with the ancient sumerians who done alot of astronomy and astrology, there Gods were celestial beings, and they already knew about the planets in our solar system 6000years ago. Mathematics was a pagan invention, after all how would the ancient civilizations be able to build the things they did without mathematics, all the ancient civilisations would of had pagans because montheism simply didn't exist at the time. The first civilizations all had pagan peoples, and if you have a civilization with people working together, you need laws and religion reinforced these laws also. I hope that answered what you wanted to know so yea...
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Okay I may seem arrogant or dumb in asking this.. But I was under the impression that pagan and wicca was all about witchcraft and heavily based on that? Am I completely off the mark or...
(Blame charmed for these views!!!)
[COLOR="Purple"]As I grow to understand less and less,
I learn to love it more and more. [/COLOR]
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Witchcraft is a religion on its own, but it's incorpirated into paganism and wicca, paganism is alot about syncranization of beliefs and ideas =]
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Xdea Wrote:Paganism is pretty much any religion with more than one God
Thanks for the reply.
Fair enough, if you are going to to use such a broad definition. As you, sort of, point out yourself by that definition everything that was invented before there were monotheistic religions must have been invented by pagans. So the fact that they invented mathematics, science, medicine, law, etc. isn't really saying anything at all.
Fred
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
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[quote=fredv3b]Thanks for the reply.
Fair enough, if you are going to to use such a broad definition. As you, sort of, point out yourself by that definition everything that was invented before there were monotheistic religions must have been invented by pagans. So the fact that they invented mathematics, science, medicine, law, etc. isn't really saying anything at all.[/quote
Well sure it does, basically it saying that they contributed more to society as people with varied and changing beliefs than those with not so varied and changing beliefs O_o 
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Twazzle Wrote:Okay I may seem arrogant or dumb in asking this.. But I was under the impression that pagan and wicca was all about witchcraft and heavily based on that? Am I completely off the mark or...
(Blame charmed for these views!!!)
Charmed = OMFG I LOVE IT (not as good as Buffy)
As for the difference, I can give you a slightly longer explanation.
Wicca is a newer religion that focuses on the masculine (the god) and feminine (the goddess) energies of the world.
Pagan is technically any polytheistic religion, but outside of the church refers to unorthodox faiths, like shamanism, wicca and witchcraft, stuff like that.
Witchcraft, in and of itself, is not a faith but a practice. It's usually accompanied by a set of religious beliefs, which in modern times, are similar to those of Wiccans. Witches can be Christian, Jewish, Hindu or pretty much any faith, they just use witchcraft.
I'll stop before I get all "blah" but basically all Wiccans are Witches but not all Witches are Wiccans.
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