Here's a link www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/nov_2000/pagan.htm
[quote=Donna Duncan]The following is taken from the Dictionary of Etymology, The origins of American English Words: (pg) 534 -
Pagan n. Probably before 1400 paygan heathen; later pagan (probably before 1425); borrowed from Late Latin paganus, from Latin, villager, rustic, civilian, from pagus rural district, originally one limited by markers; related to pangere to fix, fasten.
The meaning "heathen" of Late Latin paganus may derive from the Latin meaning "villager" since ancient idol worship lingered on in rural areas after Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and cities of the Roman Empire
So thats teh formal meaning of the word pagan.
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My meaning? Short but sweet :) Paganism is the worship of the created instead of the Creator. [/quote]
That would be, of course, if one chooses to believe that there actually IS a creator. Many pagans choose to worship in a polytheistic manner rather than monotheistic. Many of the gods and goddesses that they honor are merely personifications of the mysteries of the universe. I think that you are confusing the term pagan with heathen, which is/was according to wikipedia, "a Christian adaptation of the "gentile" of Judaism, and as such has an inherent Abrahamic bias, and pejorative connotations among monotheists,[3] comparable to heathen and infidel also known as kafir (كافر) and mushrik in Islam. For this reason, ethnologists avoid the term "paganism," with its uncertain and varied meanings, in referring to traditional or historic faiths, preferring more precise categories such as polytheism, shamanism, pantheism, or animism."
I don't think the second definition above is correct: One with no religion. Isn't that what an agnostic is? Anyhoo, the link embedded in the first post is actually great. Heathen became associated with pagan because most people who didn't fall in line with the Christian religion when it spread lived out 'among the heath'. Read: country bumpkins, where Christianity hadn't quite reached yet.