Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
Paganism
Broadly speaking, Paganism, from a Western viewpoint, means all religions that do not trace
their origins to Abraham, i.e. Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam
When European adventurers set out to colonize the world, they found peoples everywhere who had a spirituality vastly different from their own. Instead of respecting them, they scoffed at the beliefs of African tribes, Native North Americans, and Asian clans. They called them heathens, pagans, and unbelievers and set about converting them to Christianity.
Mission to Save
Some think we should not be too harsh about the lack of sensitivity shown by these colonists. They firmly believed that anybody who didn’t follow the Christian path was going to endure a terrible eternity in Hell. They felt it was their sacred duty to save these people from this dreadful fate.
Today, we have a better understanding of Pagan spirituality. We are also more accepting of the beliefs of others.
(That said, there are still plenty of Christians who believe that their religion
is the only true one. Others also still feel compelled to save non-
Ancient Animism
Paganism pre-
This find was in the Tsodilo Hills, a place that is still a sacred area to the local San people. The San are likely descendants of the Stone Age inhabitants that Dr. Coulson says carved a python out of rock. The python remains one of the San people’s most revered animals. According to their creation story, humans descended from the python.
What turned up in Botswana is an example of animism and this is probably the earliest form of Paganism. It sprang up in many different parts of the world – Africa, Australasia, Europe, Asia, America.
Each occurrence of animism had no connection to the others except for the similarity of their beliefs; this is that spirits dwell in the natural objects around them. There are good spirits who could grant requests. And, there are bad spirits that had to be calmed down, sometimes with offerings of a sacrifice.
In Europe, many animist beliefs existed, among them those of Druids. Almost everything about the ancient Druids has been lost to time; no Druid writing has survived.
Life After Death
Lots of Pagans believe in reincarnation, that is rebirth after death. It’s probable
that early tribal societies believed spirits and souls could move from one body to
another. However, writing had not yet developed, so they left few records of their
beliefs. 
(They did leave cave paintings though, some of them 30,000 years old. These
often depict hunting scenes but they also include pregnant women, which suggests
that they believed in a hunter God and a fertility Goddess.)
Among the first to adopt reincarnation of which there is a written record were Hindus in India. That was about 3,000 years ago. And, the concept spread to Buddhists and Chinese Taoists.
Ancient Greek civilization had a slightly different take. The philosopher Plato taught that human souls existed in a perfect celestial place.
From time to time, he said, the divine love of a soul chilled and it descended to inhabit a human body. Earth is an imperfect place and for the soul to be here was considered punishment for its lack of purity.
The sentence was a long one: Plato said it would take 10,000 years for the soul to cleanse itself on Earth before returning to its celestial dwelling. During that time the soul might pass from human to beast and back again.
Early Christians believed in reincarnation. But, the Council of Constantinople in 533 CE declared it to be heresy. The official teaching of the church henceforth was that each person gets just one shot at life on Earth. How well the individual does during that life determines whether they go to Heaven or Hell. There were no second chances.
Gods Lead Society
Christian as well as Pagan gods played an important role in every aspect of society.
They influenced law-
The Native North American experience was no different. Over a period of thousands of years they developed spiritual beliefs related to the environment in which they lived.
The Earth is seen as having great value and humans are its guardians. There is an understanding that mankind is not superior to Nature, the Earth, and its creatures: instead, we are simply one of the many parts that combine to make the whole. As with all animist beliefs, every living thing as well as objects have spirits and must be treated with respect.
Although there are at least 56 distinct Native cultures in Canada, there are a number
of similarities in their beliefs. Most of them have a Creator story that involves
the Great Spirit, to explain the presence of humans on Earth. Others believe that
humans came from a sky-
Almost all Native People in Canada followed their traditional spiritualities at first contact with Europeans. But only a fraction of them have maintained those traditions. The 2001 Census found that less than 30,000 out of a total population of 976,000 do. However, this is triple the number who identified themselves as believers in the 1991 Census.
Image credit
G. Baku
© Canada and the World, March 2009
All rights reserved
ALL IN A WORD
There is a bit of a debate about what to call religions other than Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc.
The words “Pagan” and
“heathen” have some nasty associations, similar to sneering words commonly used to
describe African-
Sensitivity suggests finding something less insulting.
“Pantheism” and “polytheism” are used to describe religions that worship more than one god. “Shamanism” refers to those who seek to communicate with the spirit world. “Animism” describes the belief that souls or spirits exist in plants, animals, rivers, etc. as well as in humans.
However, for many who study these beliefs the word “Paganism” is perfectly acceptable because it covers all aspects of these forms of spirituality. The origin of the word is quite harmless; it comes from the Latin word “Paganus,” meaning “country dweller or rustic.”
With its roots in Christianity, Unitarian Universalism now falls more properly into the Pagan category. Its followers accept all faiths as valid and say they are united in a search for spiritual growth. Its membership includes individuals who identify themselves as Agnostics, Atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Humanists, Wiccans, or other religious traditions. Major concerns of the UU religion include social justice and service to humanity.
Christianity teaches that humans have absolute rule over Nature, and that all things are created for human use and for no other purpose. This belief comes from the Book of Genesis 1:28. In the basic English version this reads as: “And God gave them his blessing and said to them, Be fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be masters of it; be rulers over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing moving on the earth.”
Recently, the British naturalist Sir David Attenborough said “That basic notion, that the world is there for us and if it doesn’t actually serve our purposes, it’s dispensable, that has produced the devastation of vast areas of the land’s surface.”
Most modern-
WITCH BURNING
Between the 14th and the 18th centuries tens of thousands of “witches” were executed in Europe. The period became known as “The Burning Time.” The most frequently quoted estimates are between 50,000 and 100,000 victims, with about a quarter of them being male. Many were hanged, some drowned, and others killed with extreme cruelty.
Burning alive was favoured in some areas with the executioners following the instructions
of Saint Augustine (354-
He said “that Pagans, Jews, and heretics would burn forever in eternal fire with the Devil unless saved by the Catholic Church.”
Of course, none of victims were guilty of a capital crime as we would define it today.
Unfortunately, that is not the case everywhere in the world. As recently as January 2009, a young woman in Papua New Guinea was accused of being a witch and was burned alive. In May 2008, 11 elderly women suffered a similar fate in Kenya.