Christians, Atheists, Pagans, JW's, Mormons, Who Ever Else, A Brief Bio Of Yourselves, Please?

Margot Adler wrote a classic study of neopaganism in America, about thirty years ago, and it's been updated since then. Her definition of a pagan religion was: Polytheistic, pantheistic, and animistic. I think that's a useful definition, but I would also add: animatistic, and based on direct experience.

(Which might be abbreviated as "mystical" but that's a loaded word.) Polytheism: Honoring many Gods and Goddesses, or at least more than one. (Wicca, the biggest neopagan religion, is essentially duotheistic in that we worship mainly a pair of divine lovers, the Great Goddess and the Great Horned God; but many Wiccans honor other deities in addition to our two supreme deities.) Some pagans see the gods as personal divine entities, others regard them as forces of Nature, or archetypes, etc. Pantheism: Holding that Nature is sacred and divine. Many pagans, in addition to honoring personal deities like gods and goddesses, will also honor Nature as the ultimate impersonal divinity.

OR some other concept of an ultimate impersonal divinity, such as: The Tao, Brahman, Wyrd, Fate, Orlog, Ruta, Dryghtyn, etc. The strong pantheist streak in pagan religions (especially neopaganism) means that we often find spiritual inspiration and epiphanies in what science reveals about Nature and its inner workings. To most neopagans, there is no conflict at all between pagan religions and science. Science studies Nature to explain how it works; pagan religions worship Nature, and look to it for the "why" part of existence.

Ideally, those are two different but complementary ways of looking at Nature. Animistic: Believing that spirit or soul pervades Nature and natural things such as places on the Earth, the Sun and the Moon. This goes along with the idea of local demigods or devas associated with sacred places, for example.

Animatistic: Believing that many (or all) things in Nature are filled with natural spiritual or magical energies. Concepts like "mana" or "mojo" are more animatistic than animistic. This sense of natural energies is often the basis for a belief in the magical properties of herbs and stones, etc. Direct spiritual experience can take many forms; of which mystical union with the cosmos perhaps gets the most press.

In a religion that does not take a sacred text or a priesthood as its ultimate authority, the ultimate authority may well rest with the individual and his or her direct spiritual experience. The experience can come from spiritual practices such as ritual, meditation, prayer, etc. And it can lead to spiritual beliefs; which in turn can lead to more spiritual practice, and then more spiritual experiences. But it all has to rest on some foundation; and for most pagans that is their direct spiritual experience; not a text written by other people.

So personally, I would say that I fit all of those five parameters. And probably most people today who call themselves "Pagan" also would fit all five. But some pagans might fit only three or four of them.

There are pagans who are purely pantheistic, without worshiping any deities. There are pagans who honor the Gods, but who don't do magic. But as a general rule, most pagans and most pagan religions today share most of those five aspects or parameters.

ADD: To address your question about Transcendentalism more directly, I would say that many pagans, myself included, do relate to some of what Transcendentalist writers like Emerson and Thoreau had to say about Nature and mysticism.

Actually when you think about it, there are only pagans and atheists walking this fine planet. You either believe in magic sky wizards or you don't.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.