Paganism

Paganism

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism

            A wiki link on Christianity and paganism can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_Paganism

Poster's comments:  

Examples of the former I believe to be Halloween and even parts of Christmas. Some parts of Christianity were even borrowed from Zoroastrianism, or so I also believe.

Fall, for me, begins at the Fall Equinox, around September 21st, and lasts until the Winter Solstice, around December 21st. Winter goes until the Spring Equinox, around March 21st, and goes until Summer begins at the Summer Solstice, around June 21st. Now whether that belief is Pagan,  just astronomical, a little of both, or something else, is up to the individual.

Whether all of the above even matters is also up to the individual, too.

Even the method to calculate the date of each Easter has an astronomical basis, too. Here's one  link on that subject:  https://www.assa.org.au/edm

Now whether that ties Easter to some pagan things, I'll defer again to the individual.

Even Islam, and I suspect many other religions, have ties to paganism in their history. Here's one link on Islam and paganism:  http://www.answering-islam.org/Silas/pagansources.htm

Being a missionary for any religion can be a tough business, with often unintended results. Often some combination of the old and the new seems to be what happens. Two examples come to mind. If you are a Christian from Germany, or Georgia (USA), there are probably big differences in what you believe and practice. If you are a Muslim from Africa, or Indonesia, there are probably also big differences in what you believe and practice.

Being a pagan or a heathen is the same thing, to me. The human history of paganism is interesting reading, also to me, especially the impacts on many of today's religions.

Even I have lived in places where people still practice animistic rituals, so even I know these beliefs and practices still exist in large numbers throughout our world. Heck, one just can go to South Carolina (USA) to learn about voodoo in the woods. There's even radio advertisements on how to get rid of a voodoo curse (for a price, of course). And people still pay even in the 21st century.  So is that pagan, or something else?

The only common human bond I can find is the Golden Rule.