Paganism is our native religion

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I really enjoyed this discussion!

Pagans have idols. It is hypocritical of them to accuse us of being idol-worshippers. What is an "idol" exactly, then? What is the difference between an idol and a symbol? As a Christian I believe we have many symbols, but we are forbidden to worship graven images. A symbol of our faith such as the crucifix, I think, can be easily misunderstood as an idol.

I would like to add to discussion that 'paganism' is an umbrella term, that at its broadest means any non-Abrahamic religion. I, for one, am pagan, but also an atheist. By knowing that I am a pagan, one has basically no idea what that actually entails, as it is such a broad term. I'd be happy to discuss my personal spirituality though.

Also, feminism is the radical idea that men and women should be/are equals. That is all feminism is. Men can be feminists. Feminism = equality of the sexes.

For reference, I was raised Christian. My mother and aunt are teaching me the ways of our ancestors. I also have a talent for it myself. Working the magic, I mean.

Paganism is relative. Most of what we know as "paganism" is actually Druidism and its offshoots and interpretations. Druidism is the ancestral religion of the Celts, whose origins are unknown. Celts are largely Irish, with some Scottish left over. The English are actually Germanic Saxons, and by the time they got to Britannia they had been Christianized. Germans worshipped oak trees mainly, which is similar to Druidism, but the two religions are different, although it's conceivable that the Germans and the Celts had pre-Roman contacts.

Russian religions I don't know much about. All I know is that wolf gods were quite common among the Slavics. Arab paganism can only be guessed at, since Muhammad ordered the pagans to convert or die and their records destroyed. The Yezidis of Iraq are an Arab Pagan remnant, and they worship a peacock god. I do know that many Slavic peoples found Christianity a bitter pill to swallow, and pockets of pagan resistance were extant as late as the 12th century Christian reckoning. The Scandinavians also had a difficult time with Christianity, and the Vikings used a pantheon similar to the Greco-Roman pantheon.

Not much in the way of real paganism survived Christianity's rampage across Europe during the Dark Ages; the Church ordered pagan resisters destroyed. Heck, they even wiped out competing Christianities-look up the Nag Hammadi Gospels on Wiki. The closest thing to the original religion of the Proto-Indo-European people is likely Hinduism, albeit greatly modified. I myself tend towards Buddhism, modified to my personal liking. I grew up a Mormon, which is the ultimate in phony religion. The only difference between Mormonism and Scientology is that Mormons have been around longer, the Mormons don't have a pay for revelation scale, and Joseph Smith wasn't stark raving bonkers like L. Ron Hubbard. Smith was a sociopath, but he wasn't full bore loony. Hubbard was wacko.

Most Americans have so many ethnicities and races in them that a real "blood-religion" is pretty much beside the point. I've met a Wiccan who was of Mexican ancestry, for example. Mexico has plenty of indigenous religions, mainly derived from African beliefs mixed with Christianity and a bit of Aztec, but she chose Celtic religion. Go figure. I am 1/8 Jewish but don't feel particularly tied to Judaism, which puts me in good company with most American Jews, since the passionate ones all moved to Israel. American Judaism is more about a social and business network than religious belief, for the most part. My maternal grandparents were atheists. I was too for a while. I also have Czech and German and Celt-pretty typical. A lot of Americans have Slavic ancestry from Industrial Age migrations.

America is a great religious festival-people can pretty much choose what they want. In times of turmoil, all sorts of cults pop up. In the 1970s there were UFO/extraterrestrial and comet cults, including Scientology. In the 19th century there were cults centered around sexual experimentation, from abstinence (Shakers) to Mormon polygamy to the "complex marriage" (a form of free love) practiced at Oneida. The modern day American "swinger" lifestyle is similar to Oneidan complex marriage, but swingers don't share a religion. New Age is a grab bag of beliefs rooted in the hippie era, most of which by now exist to fleece the gullible.

Lately Buddhism has shown a surge in interest in America. Neo-Celtic beliefs are also popular-Druidism, Wicca, free floating paganism. Christianity is actually losing. Islam is not really popular here due to bigotry, and much of Islam's growth elsewhere is rooted in increased fertility rates for Muslim women. Weirdly, economic turmoil tends not to produce much in the way of cults here-the Great Depression resulted in a big surge in mainline Protestantism, not in cult activity, and industrialism resulted in a surge in communistic beliefs and a concurrent popularity of Marx-mandated atheism.

The 1980s had a big dose of televangelism and TV based faith healing, with leaders bragging about their lavish lifestyles. It wasn't known as the Decade of Greed here for nothing. Typical of Americans, they decided to worship money in the 1980s in lieu of anything else. The 1990s saw political cult activity centered around an extreme interpretation of the nation's founding documents, mainly the Bill of Rights. The recent presidential candidate Ron Paul who got press around the world but not here is a follower.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Christianity is losing. Evangelical/Fundamentalist churches seem to be thriving. It's also probably a regional thing. In Iowa, it's Christian or bust.