joel lala:

yep..they grow far better in christain environs than were pagans recide..even logic boy complained about the high level of illiteracy that abounds in paganism on the first page.

most of most of the world is not "pagan"
[img]http://origins.osu.edu/sites/default/files/Prevailing_world_religions_map.png[/img]

Ray McBlue: *Finished contemplation*

I have reached a decision.

Apart from being embattled by both Christian and Muslims, Paganism has nothing in common with Atheism.

Paganism still represent something I despise and that's mental slavery. Okay, so their religion is not of foreign origin, so what? It doesn't make them any different than those that go to church every Sunday.

[size=16pt]Pagans believe in a deity[/size]

I detest the association and comparison.

We are nothing alike.

you are viewing this in a "christian" way. most "pagan" religions are not "organized"(more or less) their is no Pope, preachers, pastors etc telling you this and that. their "god/s" are not like the Abrahamic god here is an example

Shinto is based on belief in, and worship of, kami.

The best English translation of kami is 'spirits', but this is an over-simplification of a complex concept - kami can be elements of the landscape or forces of nature.

Kami are close to human beings and respond to human prayers. They can influence the course of natural forces, and human events.

Shinto tradition says that there are eight million million kami in Japan.

Concepts of kami

Shinto belief includes several ideas of kami: while these are closely related, they are not completely interchangeable and reflect not only different ideas but different interpretations of the same idea.

Kami can refer to beings or to a quality which beings possess.

So the word is used to refer to both the essence of existence or beingness which is found in everything, and to particular things which display the essence of existence in an awe-inspiring way.

But while everything contains kami, only those things which show their kami-nature in a particularly striking way are referred to as kami.

Kami as a property is the sacred or mystical element in almost anything. It is in everything and is found everywhere, and is what makes an object itself rather than something else. The word means that which is hidden.

Kami have a specific life-giving, harmonising power, called musubi, and a truthful will, called makoto (also translated as sincerity).

Not all kami are good - some are thoroughly evil.

Kami as 'God'

The idea that kami are the same as God stems in part from the use of the word kami to translate the word 'God' in some 19th century translations of the Bible into Japanese.

This caused a great deal of confusion even among Japanese: the Shinto theologian Ueda Kenji estimated in 1990 that nearly 6[b]5% of entering students now associate the Japanese term kami with some version of the Western concept of a supreme being.

The next section shows that kami are actually very different from the Western concept of God.[/b]

Kami as beings

The concept of kami is hard to explain.

Shintoists would say that this is because human beings are simply incapable of forming a true understanding of the nature of kami.

To make understanding easier kami are often described as[b] divine beings, as spirits or gods[/b]. But kami are not much like the gods of other faiths:

Kami are not divine like the transcendent and omnipotent deities found in many religions.
Kami are not omnipotent.
Kami are not perfect - they sometimes make mistakes and behave badly.
Kami are not inherently different in kind from human beings or nature - they are just a higher manifestation of the life energy... an extraordinary or awesome version.
Kami don't exist in a supernatural universe - they live in the same world as human beings and the world of nature

Kami include the gods that created the universe, but can also include:

The spirits that inhabit many living beings
Some beings themselves
Elements of the landscape, like mountains and lakes
Powerful forces of nature, like storms and earthquakes
human beings who became kami after their deaths

The term kami is sometimes applied to spirits that live in things, but it is also applied directly to the things themselves - so the kami of a mountain or a waterfall may be the actual mountain or waterfall, rather than the spirit of the mountain or waterfall.

Not all kami are sufficiently personalised to have names - some are just referred to as the kami of such-and-such a place.

Three types of kami are particularly important:

Ujigami, the ancestors of the clans: in tribal times, each group believed that a particular kami was both their ancestor and their protector, and dedicated their worship to that spirit
Kami of natural objects and creatures, and of the forces of nature
The souls of dead human beings of outstanding achievement

here is a quote from a native American:
“If you take [a copy of] the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone. Our bible IS the wind and the rain”

joel lala:



Common logicboy, lets stop beating about the bush. You know the truth.

In India the police in Khurja reported "dozens of sacrifices" in the period of half a year in 2006. Human sacrifices are occasionally carried out by extreme followers of Kali, the goddess of power.

In January, 2008, Milton Blahyi of Liberia confessed being part of human sacrifices which "included the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the heart, which was divided into pieces for us to eat." He fought against Charles Taylor's militia.

In August 2004, a muti killing took place in Ireland; the headless corpse of a Malawi woman was found near Piltown, County Kilkenny.

In Nigeria alone, the high rate of human sacrifice aka rituals is solely caused by pagans in disguise of being a traditionalist or babalawo as they call them in yoruba land. Other areas in Nigeria practise rituals which is directly related to paganism.

paganism is just a term to describe non Abrahamic religions

Ray McBlue: I'm an hardcore Atheist, which is why the prospect of teaming up with pagans seemed too much like a sell-out to me.

Believe it or not, pagans are theist, and are no different to Christians and Muslims. They discriminate just as much.

In a largely pagan community, if you are an atheist or Christian, you'd better steer clear, or they will use you for human sacrifice.

Pagans have nothing in common with atheist cuz most are bunch of ignorant illiterates, while atheism is the epitome of free thinking and advance knowledge.

I strongly protest the credibility of this thread. Team up with who?

[size=16pt]No way![/size]

Is There an Unspoken Pagan/Atheist Alliance?

Is it just me or have you noticed that Pagans and Atheists seem (for the most part) to get along and even agree with one another most of the time?

If you visit atheist or religious forums, the trend seems to be pretty clear. I don't think I've ever had an argument with a pagan or met one online or in person that I disliked. I really started thinking about it after reading a comment about how some Christians feel their religion is under attack. I started wondering - probably for the millionth time - whether that's true. I then realized that you rarely see atheists arguing with Pagans, Hindu's, Buddhists etc. You will frequently see them arguing with Muslims or Christians.

Why is that?

I decided to brainstorm reasons and this article is the result. Now keep in mind that I'm going to be talking in general terms for the purposes of this article. So if I say 'Pagans' or 'Atheists' or 'Christians', I'm not saying all Christians, Pagans or Atheists. I'm just talking in general terms.

Blessed be

Some Pagans will end their post with 'Blessed be'.

Love the saying. And it's much better than when a Christian says in a condescending manner, 'I'll pray for you'.

Ignorance of Pagan beliefs

Personally, I'm pretty ignorant of Pagan belief structures. I don't know a hell of a lot about them. In order to debate someone, you sort of need to have a grasp of the subject matter. When I run into a Pagan, I'm more filled with curiosity. I want to understand and know more about them. Maybe this works in their favor?

Numbers game

It might just come down to demographics. According to Wiki, neo-pagans make up only 0.02% of the world's population. Christians on the other hand make up a third of the population and many of them are concentrated in North America.

This means that Christian beliefs are going to impact society far more than pagan beliefs.

Satan and shared history

I've never had a pagan tell me that I'm going to be tortured for eternity for not believing in their deity(s). This generally leads to a more pleasant conversation.

I would assume that many pagans have read up on the history of their faith and realize that faiths like Christianity used to burn them at the stake, torture and rape them. Atheists also had to be careful in the past about sharing their disbelief. In fact, pagans and atheists still have to be careful. They might not get burned at the stake any more, but they can face being ostracized from the community.

I also think that some Christians think that atheists and pagans are tools of Satan. This might be another reason why pagans and atheists seem to have an unspoken alliance.

In a recent news article that highlighted the distrust and animosity some people have towards atheists it said:

"While atheists may see their disbelief as a private matter on a metaphysical issue, believers may consider atheists' absence of belief as a public threat to cooperation and honesty." In a 2003 study [PDF], 48 percent (the highest of disapproval rating of any group) of Americans said that they would disapprove of their children marrying an atheist.


This distrust prompts one to wonder if believers really do worry that people would engage in rampant murder and mayhem if they thought that there was no vengeful deity monitoring their behavior at all times. In fact, psychological research does confirm that a lot of religious believers do tend to think this way. In light of those fears, one prominent slogan featured on placards at the Rally for Reason, “Be Good for Goodness’ Sake” must appear nonsensical to believers.


I wonder if the numbers would be similar when it comes to pagan beliefs and atheism.

Laws

Christianity has a big influence on our laws. Paganism not so much and I've never met a pagan that believed their faith should be legislated into law. You never hear a pagan saying we're a Pagan Nation or any other such nonsense.

For example, you can easily find news stories like this one:

Newt Gingrich likes to harp on the subject of “religious freedom” as much as the next Republican. Of course, as we have shown here repeatedly, the phrase “religious freedom” is a stand-in for something else: the privileging of Christian belief over all other forms of belief – or disbelief. Religious freedom should mean equal freedoms for all with regards to belief and that is what the First Amendment establishes by prohibiting government establishment of religion, originally applied to the federal government in the First Amendment and later applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment in the wake of the Civil War.


And when the separation of church and state is threatened, it would make sense that it threatens the pagan religion as well as atheists.

Perhaps it just boils down to common goals and vision for the future where no religion is given privilege over another and all are free to believe or disbelieve?

Conversion

Islam and Christianity are built on converting people to their religion. Pagans (from what I understand) can literally have thousands of deities and they don't believe their way is the only way. Pagans don't attempt to convert people because they think they're saving a soul from damnation. They may share their ideas and ideals, but rarely (never that I've seen) try to force their beliefs on other people by using scare tactics.

These are just some of my thoughts. I don't know whether any of them are correct or if there really is an unspoken alliance between pagans and atheists or not or if it just seems that way sometimes.

What do you think?
http://canadian-atheist..com/2012/03/is-there-unspoken-paganatheist-alliance.html

here is a pic i fond on the blog

[img]http://3.bp..com/-PCxXLUNQ1bs/T3Q-Y3g5_gI/AAAAAAAAAC0/N_-US7Lle7c/s1600/pagan-satan.jpg[/img]

Chris Nnaz: Our culture,our culture that cud not give us electricity,education,technology etc. the only thing our culture gave us are gender inequality, poverty, selfisheness.Look at Africa, what do you see?people still hanging on culture and moving backwards.let us drop those cultural practices so that Africa can move forward.

most of the problems with Africa is not cultural its political.

PAGAN 9JA:
Papua New Guinea has more tribes than 10 Nigerias combined for a small area.

indeed and what makes it more interesting is the Population is just over 7 million

Papua New Guinea is one of the most heterogeneous nations in the world. There are hundreds of ethnic groups indigenous to Papua New Guinea, the majority being from the group known as Papuans, whose ancestors arrived in the New Guinea region tens of thousands of years ago. Many remote Papuan tribes still have only marginal contact with the outside world.

The others are Austronesians, their ancestors having arrived in the region less than four thousand years ago.

Papua New Guinea has more languages than any other country, with over 820 indigenous languages, representing 12% of the world's total, but most have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely spoken indigenous language is Enga with about 200,000 speakers, followed by Melpa and Huli.

50calibre: Papua New Guinea is one of the most uncivilised places on earth, the place is an absolute jungle, most tribes there roam nak*ed, with men covering their co*ks with just a horn, they hunt with primitive weapons and live in shanties. That country is the closest you can get to the Stone Age today.

so let them live like they did for 1000's of years




i find it cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROwKq3kxPEA

[img]http://righttruth.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451c49a69e201901be00322970b-500wi[/img]

[img]http://fellowshipofminds.files./2013/03/coexist-not2.jpg[/img]

look at this brainwashing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x3PTLQRQbA

https://www.nairaland.com/1334001/christianity-neo-colonialism-homosexuality-homophobia-right

Africa is in the dark ages now

not atheistic but still funny
[img]http://cartomaton.files./2010/03/i-ll-see-your-jihad-and-i-ll-raise-you-one-crusade930x620postcard10x15white.png[/img]

Boko-Haram Kills 30 Students In Yobe Boarding School
https://www.nairaland.com/1349524/boko-haram-kills-30-students-yobe

Yobe State school shooting

On 6 July 2013, gunmen attacked a secondary school in Mamudo, Yobe State, Nigeria, killing at least 42 people. Most of the dead were students, with a few staff members also killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yobe_State_school_shooting
https://www.nairaland.com/1349524/boko-haram-kills-30-students-yobe

bye Brazil RIP carnival

all4naija: Stop using culture for an excuse. I cannot understand how hard it is for you that the images you posted are of barbaric people who refused to get advanced in all raminfications. When I mean advancement, it is from the perspective of the modern man who can be rational on the way forward not those who would keep dwelling on past using leopard skin for clothing and allowing their women to expose their titis as they were done in the cave men era.

Living the savagery part of the culture of oppressing and molesting women in your country aside, an organized society which is parts of what define civilization is missing making clear how that society would look with everything blacks, regressing into Mr-Flintstone's. There is still no way we would have something close to SA of today without the white people.

Now, let's take a closer look at the first photo. The men are on barefoot and wearing tattered leather on their waists. They have some animal fur round their legs and biceps. The ones on their heads are probably made from pony stripped of their tails in the wild. Some of them drum while the others look from under a primitive canopy. These cannot be called advanced people socially and otherwise. People who still do things like our forefathers during the stone age. Would you say the people are advanced with so much barbaric practices surrounding their doings? This reflect on how SA would have looked like without the white people.

blah look at japan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE_any9abTM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q3DufVsktc

all4naija: Civilization has a lot to do with human advancement in organization and social development. Likely different from Zulu ladies exposing their titis in public and men wearing leopard skin on half-covered bodies.

just because the "europeans" say it is "uncivilized" does not mean it is wrong it is called culture. i guess Nigeria does not have native culture no more and what does lack of cloths got to do with civilization?


i see no human advancement in Nigeria beside you just hate SA to hate

are these uncivilized?


[img]http://0.static.wix.com/media/9592c6_e5b55aeb4b2e5487aa3bbb99be1b5c87.jpg_1024[/img]

all4naija: That is a joke of the century. Where are your evidences to support your claim? It is clear from the Zulu and Xhosa perspective in the present time that they would have still be practising child molestation and nudity far from seeing civilization.

define civilization

Harbioollah: You people had better not blame this on Islam. Blame it on the US and Israel which are the main sponsors of these pigs.

thank God we now know who the terrorist is between Israel, USA and Hezbollah

of course blame others for the actions of crazy Muslims.

Evil Brain: That ship has sailed a long time ago. The imported religions are here and they aren't going anywhere. Traditionalism is going to be nothing more than a fringe religion for the foreseeable future. And that's only if we're lucky.

There's a good chance that they'll be wiped out entirely if the Christian fundamentalists and Muslim fanatics get their way. Traditionalists and atheists are about the only groups in Nigeria that it's socially acceptable to openly discriminate against. And the campaign of intolerance is working.

and gays which people advocate genocide up on.

here is a thread i made
https://www.nairaland.com/1344776/african-nations-holidays-pagan-origin

i was inspired by this thread https://www.nairaland.com/1344673/traditional-paganism-lead-strong-nationalism#16581842

what i am saying is do African nations have non christian/Islamic holidays nationwide not just in one area?

Egypt is probably the only nation in Africa with a national holiday that has "pagan" influence/origin

collynzo2: The answer to this question will soon be out, Nelson Mandela is about to die. When that happens their anti-white president and the youth leader of ANC will freely throw the whites away from the country. About 100 whites are killed every month in South Africa and as I write this now, there are still all white neighborhoods in SA where no blacks are allowed entrance. They see all SA blacks as security threat just the way SA blacks see Nigerians as criminals.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2351339/Mandelas-passing-looming-threat-race-war-South-Africas-whites-widow-mourns-latest-murdered-white-farmer-chilling-dispatch-nation-holding-breath.html

white people fears