Well I thought that the whole Christain thing was true... but see I am this thing you call a "pagen" and i believe that is my religon. i get were you are coming from. a lot of things are over-rated like christains.. they watn you to believe in this god. i wont believe in that god.. it's fake.. a true god is pure and is free.. what they want is power over every religon and think that there religon is the right one.. it's not fare to those who aren't even sure of their religon.. like many of my friends are presured into there "christain" ways.. i thought that if you were in a religon that people would get into yourself not you pushing them into that... i have strong feeling for this kind of talk so i will let you go and not waste time.. Ash

Unfortunately, the "people of the book" (christians, jews & muslims) would label any "religion" pagan if it doesn't follow what they teach. As far as I know paganism was never a religion of its own, just a deragatory word used by the "book people" (sic) to defame other peoples beliefs. Thankfully as an Atheist I'm not labelled a pagan, I'm just a godless, hellbound miscreant.

Also, unfortunately, christians & the like aren't generally satisfied with letting people come to them. I doubt there'd be many takers. That's why they often go door to door or walk around handing out pamphlets, stand on street corners shouting about Jesus & his Apocalypse or lobby lawmakers to change things in their favor. It's horribly annoying & has lately grown to be dangerous to our "American freedoms".

Anyway, I enjoy discussing this stuff, so don't think you've wasted my time. I appreciate the attention. LoL

But what most people miss, including American Christians, is that Jesus of Nazareth never claimed to be a christ, which is the label Paul of Tarsus (sp?) added after Jesus's death. Jesus was a teacher and philosopher who believed in the same ideas that some say led to the death of John Lennon.

If you want to understand where a society is heading or the type of society, look at the major religion of the area. Religion came about to answer questions that a society could not answer. Once a form of science answered the questions, the myths changed. However, science only leads to more questions and is always changing. If one wanted to, he/she could map out the history of the world by looking at the evolution of religion. Religion has always been there, for the masses needs to believe in something, whether or not is fantastical or scientific. I just wonder why people can not believe in themselves and take responsibility for their actions and reactions instead of blaming their actions on some unforseen force.

Pagan was term developed to include everything that was not Christian at the time of the crusades. Today the term composes religions that can be classified as polytheistic. The word Pagan has also developed into a word denoting a particular religion; however, many of the pagans that I know use other terms to describe their religion. Although, I would like someone to explain how so many philosophies and ideas have been coined as a religion. Buddhism is considered a religion, yet it is empirical, scientific, and pragmatic. (World’s Religions pg 67-69) Anyway, the point being that all religions believe that they are the true religion including Wiccans and The Church of Diana. So how does one know which one holds the key to the ultimate truth?
Now if we could only get the masses to think for themselves.
Black Cat, An existentialist Scientist

I am glad that you mention Saul (I refuse to aknowledge the silly name changes, when I can afford to) of Tarsus. I just recently watched the documentary "the GOd That Wasn't There". A very good film. It discusses, among other things, how Saul never knew much of anything of Jesus. Since most of the accounts of Jesus that we follow today come from Saul it becomes easy to see why there are only two "records" of Jesus' early life and both of these are negligible. Saul, originally, despised Christians and persecuted them for a living. Assuming his conversion was genuine, he would have had alot to "attone" for, as well as a lot of internal convincing required for him to make such a life change. I think there's a good chance this is where the "Jesus is the son of god" thing originated. As I mentioned in Black Sarcastic Cat's blog, I strongly doubt that if Jesus is who he claimed to be (not his divinity but his message) that he would declair his divinity incessantly.

As far as Buhdism being named a religion, I'have a possible explanation. I feal that religion is inappropriately considered a mystical thing requiring invisible gods and impropable afterlifes. Religion, to me at least, is a set of beliefs that guide your actions and morality, period. In my case my religion would likely be existentialism, refined & altered by my personal take on the world, and having nothing to do with afterlifes and unknowable origins of the universe.