Talk:Paganism

Just thought I ought to mention that I'm well aware that *here* there is no commonly-accepted definition of paganism and Hinduism is generally not classed as being a pagan religion (I've often wondered why that is, actually).This is a proposal of how scholars of religion *there* view things.

Paganism generally denotes polytheistic religions, when it's not being used as an insult for any non-Christian religion. Hinduism isn't really a polytheistic religion, as it seems that the existence of one God is taught. This one God is so great and beyond comprehension, that multiple gods are required for humans to comprehend him. Elemtilas

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Steg says...

Maybe it's because pagan is usually used as a negative, and not neutral, term, and it's not a good idea to insult a religion that has as many followers as Hinduism does. Actually, i generally don't hear the word "pagan" used that much at all; polytheistic yes, but not "pagan".

Perhaps extremely archaic Hinduism (or rather the direct ancestor of Hinduism, practiced by the Aryans) could be called "Paganism" -- but I think modern Hinduism is not a Pagan religion in the usually accepted sense. Anyway, my penny-ha-penny. Elemtilas