-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Do all Pagans believe in literal deities?
- Thread starter wabisabi
- Start date
Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
Well, not exactly. The atheistic pagans I've known believe that the gods are manifestations of our psyche. They're very real in a sense, but not literal beings.
Comicaze247
See the previous line
I'm not speaking for all pagans, just my views.
I consider myself somewhat pagan (not exactly sure what I am, lol). But I believe that whether or not literal gods truly exist, they came into being out of people's needs.
I personally believe that there is a universal energy that runs throughout everyone and everything, all part of the same energy. I believe that gods are the manifestations of that energy with powers catering to the needs of the people that they are worshipped by. If the people rely on their crops to survive, they worship a god of good harvest. If they rely on hunting, they worship a god of the wild or of hunting. Etc.
And even if they don't exist, they are still symbols for the people who worship them. Symbols to try to emulate, to compare themselves to and therefore try to improve as people.
That's just my take on it. I'm kind of an agnostic/pagan/buddhist/universalist type thing.
I consider myself somewhat pagan (not exactly sure what I am, lol). But I believe that whether or not literal gods truly exist, they came into being out of people's needs.
I personally believe that there is a universal energy that runs throughout everyone and everything, all part of the same energy. I believe that gods are the manifestations of that energy with powers catering to the needs of the people that they are worshipped by. If the people rely on their crops to survive, they worship a god of good harvest. If they rely on hunting, they worship a god of the wild or of hunting. Etc.
And even if they don't exist, they are still symbols for the people who worship them. Symbols to try to emulate, to compare themselves to and therefore try to improve as people.
That's just my take on it. I'm kind of an agnostic/pagan/buddhist/universalist type thing.
Last edited:
Gentoo
The Feisty Penguin
blackout
Violet.
That's pretty much my 'take' as well.
*though I 'side with' Theist for other reasons*
Storm: Nicely Put.
Anti-thesisofreason
Explorer
I have an easier time "believing" in the gods as archetypes than I do as literal beings. Pieces and parts of our deep psyche.
Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
Great article on non-theistic paganism: Dancing with the Gods. Enjoy.
EverChanging
Well-Known Member
I am also drawn to paganism and have been learning more about it recently. I also want to start learning more about mythology -- I'll start with Greek mythology -- too deepen my reserves of...feeling and thinking, I suppose one could say.
I have pagan friends and have enjoyed celebrating pagan holy days, but my problem is similar to yours -- I'm an atheist, a Humanist, and I don't believe in the supernatural.
Neo-pagan is probably the better term to describe modern pagan spiritual paths. From what I've read in An Introduction to Paganism: an Earth-Centered Religion, while most neo-pagans accept some kind of supernatural reality, there is no neo-pagan creed, and there is certainly room in neo-paganism for non-theistic, non-literal concepts of deity, or no deity-concepts at all, though a non-literal approach would be more common than outright atheism.
I consider myself an atheist and usually use the term because it would most clearly express my views to the average person, but as someone who has had spiritual/mystical experiences, I know the power of the mind very well. That is the closest I can come to believing in "God," and that can work very well within neo-paganism. A History of God really deepened my perspective on mysticism and the different ways humans can come to experience the "divine," if you will. The insights therein meshed really well with what I understand about neo-paganism.
Edit: the article Storm posted is a really good one. She has posted it elsewhere when I brought up this subject. It confirms mystical experiences I have had myself.
I have pagan friends and have enjoyed celebrating pagan holy days, but my problem is similar to yours -- I'm an atheist, a Humanist, and I don't believe in the supernatural.
Neo-pagan is probably the better term to describe modern pagan spiritual paths. From what I've read in An Introduction to Paganism: an Earth-Centered Religion, while most neo-pagans accept some kind of supernatural reality, there is no neo-pagan creed, and there is certainly room in neo-paganism for non-theistic, non-literal concepts of deity, or no deity-concepts at all, though a non-literal approach would be more common than outright atheism.
I consider myself an atheist and usually use the term because it would most clearly express my views to the average person, but as someone who has had spiritual/mystical experiences, I know the power of the mind very well. That is the closest I can come to believing in "God," and that can work very well within neo-paganism. A History of God really deepened my perspective on mysticism and the different ways humans can come to experience the "divine," if you will. The insights therein meshed really well with what I understand about neo-paganism.
Edit: the article Storm posted is a really good one. She has posted it elsewhere when I brought up this subject. It confirms mystical experiences I have had myself.
Last edited:
I am open to this as a distinct possibility. Ultimately, whether they are real literal beings or just real parts of my (or the collective human) psyche is irrelevant to me in practical terms. I lean one way or the other on the question at different times, and don't necessarily feel the need to fully commit to one particular take on the matter, again since the distinction does not matter to me in practical terms.
Ukonkivi
Member
There are all kinds of Polytheism. Some are soft and some are hard.
At least some kind of soft polytheism is probably most common.
But there's also quite a few who are more on the side of not being polytheist but a form of animistic monotheism. Though in some forms of animism "gods" are really just a form of a high spirit, so it makes matters really hazy.
At least some kind of soft polytheism is probably most common.
But there's also quite a few who are more on the side of not being polytheist but a form of animistic monotheism. Though in some forms of animism "gods" are really just a form of a high spirit, so it makes matters really hazy.
AlsoAnima
Friend
You could probably narrow that down to sects, and other smaller groups within Paganism two.
Runewolf1973
Materialism/Animism
I consider myself an Animist. Animism is something that almost every religious belief in the world, including paganism has in common, at least in some small way. It is a belief in spirits, or more personally what I consider to be universal consciousness. I do not believe in any literal gods, but I do at times consult the runes in which case I am consulting Odin, the Viking "god". I believe that what people call "gods" are like spirits, parts of our consciousness, but they are not all-powerful, omnipotent deities as in the biblical concept. They are part of the universal energy for they exist in our consciousness, but they are not physical beings as such. I practice a form of shamanism, so even though it sounds weird, I have seen and visited the realm of so-called "gods", dragons, and such, but in the physical realm, they do not exist. They are all part of the universal consciousness where anything we could possibly conceive is possible.
Last edited:
Can someone explain to me what "theistic" means? I tried to look it up on Wikipedia but the description there made my brain hurt...
In a nutshell, "theistic" means "strongly related to a belief in the existence of one or more deities".
Troublemane
Well-Known Member
...I guess im not sure if that tree talking to me is a real tree spirit or the projection of an aspect of my own mind. Whats important is whether the message it gives helps or not. I guess im a pragmatic pagan in that regard. It doesnt really matter if there are gods or god, or spirits or if they're all in your mind. What matters is if it works!
Erebus
Well-Known Member
I guess im a pragmatic pagan in that regard. It doesnt really matter if there are gods or god, or spirits or if they're all in your mind. What matters is if it works!
Exactly right.