Christians have a "holier than thou" attitude, but if you do a little digging than it becomes clear that Christianity is just an opiate for the masses. And yes, they did steal all the pagan rituals and holidays and made them their own to lure unsuspecting pagans into their religion of fear and control. Most everyone knows that Halloween was a pagan festival of the harvest, but did you know that Christmas is actually a pagan festival of the winter solstice, biblical scholars even claim that jesus was most likely born in summer, not Christmas. Christmas trees are a pagan ritual to pay respect to the evergreen, that stayed green all winter. The yule log is a pagan ritual. Even Santa Claus' alias 'Kris Kringle' is the Germanic pagan tribes name for the god of the winter. Easter is a Celtic pagan festival, and the Christians didnt even bother changing its name from the pagan word easter to a christian word. Easter eggs, you guessed it, are a pagan ritual, as is the easter sunrise service. I could go on and on about all the festivals and ancient rites stolen by christians, but the world chooses to turn a blind eye, and accept their opiate for the masses.
If those who are opposed, intimidated, frightened or upset by Pagan traditions usually don't know the first thing about them. If cowans (non-Pagans) would take the time and effort to study Pagan traditions and realize that the three largest mainstream religions pulled most of their beliefs/teachings from The Olde Religion (Paganism), they might not be so afraid. It's okay to be ignorant-- you can always remedy that through study -- but don't allow stupidity to stand in your way of that.
Christians don't hate wiccas,or pagans.we may get upset or defensive over certain issues.but it's not because of hate or spite or scorn. The reason we get upset,is because we're confused by certain things. What we don't know, we often tend to judge. Also,some Christians have had experiences with different religions. Experiences that may not have been happy for them. If you feel okay with what you're doing, I won't judge you or condemn you for that. I get confused by it. But I don't point my finger at anyone. I'm not perfect, and I've made lots of mistakes in my life. But my relationship with Jesus gives me comfort. Because he helps me to do better in my life. I can make better decisions and do the things that he wants me to do. I don't judge what anyone else does or doesn't do. I only get defensive, if what they're doing hurts or harms another person. You have beliefs that are very important to you. And you have the right to choose what you want to believe. You have a belief in spirituality, and you have a unique way in which you express it. If you're looking for spiritual answers, a connection to the divine, the divine will eventually find you. I've heard that we don't go looking for god. God comes looking for us. If you're searching for that divine connection, your heart is in the right place. And nobody has any right to judge you, or look down on you. Keep searching. And you'll soon find that your search, was really the divine looking to find you all along.
I was born into a Catholic family and sent to Catholic school and church. What I was taught is that the crusades were good and Paganism was bad. When I was old enough to do my OWN research after I was booted out of Catholic highschool, I found out the truth about this so called "Perfect true Christian/Catholic religion. It is ALL lies, everything I was ever taught were lies and fabrication. One of my favorite teachers in grade school was an ex-Nun who left her position as a nun when she found out the hypocrisy and true history of Christianity. She told me this and taught me all about mythology right before I graduated and said to do my research and always keep my eyes open. Thank hell I was one of the lucky ones. She was fired from her teaching position shortly after I left for her "inappropriate" teachings to students who wanted to know the truth.
The truth is open for all to see. Look up what the Christians did to the Greeks, Scandinavians, Germanic peoples, every culture. All those cultures were raped of their history, valiant men made to wear the devil's mask. Seriously, look it up and research. If you think the festivals and holidays and saints are it, you have NO idea what the true history of this horrible atrocity of our ancestors' history. But to answer your question, a lot of Christians, Catholics, Jews not so much but Muslims especially, hate any religion that doesn't involve Christ, Allah, "God", or the like. That is just my personal experience.
Alright let me point out one thing to everyone. We pagans, wiccans and many others have been burned by the stack by christians, example ever hear of the Salem Witch Hunts? The church did this thou to control the public. The Church has always been afraid of losing power. Ever hear of a man named Martin Luther? No I'm not talking about Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther did not believe that salvation could be achieved through the sale of the indulgences. So he challanged the church, and guess what they tried to kill him too. He succeeded and the church was split into two branches.
As all us pagans know we use magick in the same sense that christians pray. But the thing I don't understand is most christians ive talked to don't believe in magick, but when their son of god brought people back from the dead or made a blind man see or even cured a man from lepresy, they consider it a miracle, to me and most of my friends that is technically considered magick, just as if a magician on stage in las vegas would make an elephant disappear. Magick is magick. A miracle is when you are driving in the middle of nowheres and have to go number 2 very badly and you don't think you'll make it to the next stop but right as you think your screwed you find a rest stop and you make it to the bathroom, that is a miracle. If there are any pastors out there who read this could you please explain to me why this is?????? And another thing why doesnt the bible explain anything about the caveman, dinosaurs, the ice age, which have all be scientificly proven? Its things like that that make christianity seen more and more fake.
I wouldn't go as far and say hate, but some people (even in this day in age I'm asked all the time about my religion) are confused. Some people think that we worship the devil, and that we do all these ungodly acts. The thing is that paganism is one of the oldest religions in the world. And most holidays that are celebrated today comes from pagans...the dying of eggs on easter, halloween...I hope this helped in answering your question. Its a hard thing to answer-just most people don't understand and they fear what they don't understand
I do not put down christians or their religion, I just hate it when they claim their religion is the only one that is right and other religions are wrong.
Pagans DO NOT practice human sacrifice. In fact we are not allowed to shed any blood whatsoever, if we do we have broken our rede which states " An ye harm none do as ye will."
And to those who claim Paganism is a washed up form of hippie ism, look at your own religion and see how much it has also changed from the past.
We Pagans will accept christians as much as our own, just treat us with the respect you want to be treated with. After all doesn't the Bible itself say: "Do not judge, lest you be judged."
In my opinion, Ignorance. I'm not saying they're stupid. They just don't understand it. And people fear what they don't understand.
And most people have a problem with people who are different from what they are. Call it whatever you want. But they're blinded by fear and hate.
They're the ones who are truly lost. (The Christians who hate for religious differences).
I'd also like to point out that MANY Christians don't hate Wiccans or Pagans :) There are many who are very accepting and kind. And bless them for that! They recognize the beauty in diversity, or they just mind their own xD
As a general rule, people fear what they don't know much about, they hate what they fear, and they try to destroy what they hate. The vast majority of Christians know extremely little or nothing about paganism. That's why most Christians that know what they are hate Pagans, and therefore Wiccans, Druids, etc.
It would be a huge generalisation to say that all Christians hate Pagans and Wiccans.
The nature of Christianity means to follow Christ, this is why many Christians ask themselves 'What Would Jesus Do?' all throughout their lives, because we are followers of Jesus. The nature of Jesus was gentle, warm, accepting, teaching, guiding and loving. If a Christian, a true Christian, is attempting to live their lives in the footsteps of Jesus, then they shouldn't hate anyone. (Although this is very difficult!)
Jesus taught to 'hate the sin, not the sinner'. Therefore Christians should actually try not to dislike others. Jesus taught us to love our neighbours as ourselves.
As to the teachings and practices of Pagans and Wiccans, they are in contrast to what Christians believe. Paganism goes as far back as Christianity does, but they are very contrasting religions. Pagans and Wiccans believe in more than one God, whereas Christianity is rather firm about their belief that they believe in one God and one God only.
There are a vast amount of differences between the religions, but that is a discussion for another day.
The words 'Christians' and 'hate' should not be in the same sentence, except if the word 'not' is inserted between them. I believe there is a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to Christianity, but it is quite simple: Christians have no enemies, they hate nobody (and if they do, they shouldn't).
The beauty of Christianity is that it is a religion that fosters love between all mankind, regardless of beliefs. We weren't taught 'love you neighbour as you do yourself....but only if he shares the same belief as you.' No, we were taught 'love your neighbour as you do yourself'...period. Anything that goes against this is simply not Christian.
The Christians hate us (Pagans) because they think that people shouldn't bbe playing with the kind of magicks that they think people shouldn't control.
I don't think most people take "wicca" seriously because it really is a washed up form of hippieism. It's referred to as "neo-paganism." The true paganism of the past is gone; nobody would practice that anymore. There is a reason the followers were called barbarians. "wicca" is a sort of revival of the old celtic religion. The druids of this religion would commit human sacrifices. The rest of it was just various superstitions. This religion was basically overrun by the Christians in the 6th century. That is when the true paganism died.
Pagans do not hate christians at all. In fact paganism accommodates and respects each religion. Ignorant christians and members of orthodox religions persecute and hate any religion including their own.
How many wars, bloodshed and misery has been caused by these orthodox religions? Think of the crusades, reformation, Inquisitions, etc as well as protestant against catholic.
As far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong) not a SINGLE WAR has ever been launched on christians by pagans nor has their ever been wars against other religions by pagans.
Yet there are numerous pesecutions of pagans and other religions by christians who don't understand our religion or beliefs.
I was a christian believer before until working with pagans. I have found, in my personal experience, that pagans are decient, humble people, while christians are arrogant and narrow-minded. If I am wrong prove me so.
OKay I grow up atheist, but went to a church of england school for good schooling then I went to secondary school and started cadets me and my bezzie were talking about ghosts then a girl comes and is like are you wicca and we keep going wt, then we learn about it together and it fits our beliefs perfectly I love it, sure we get crap at school but one of my best friends is a christian and I have a Jehovah's witness friend, however I accidently went on a christian site saying about how wiccans and pagans should be killed because of there brutality, the Ku Klux Klan started killing black people around the time when the slave trad had been abolished, they wore crosses and said they were christian, then in the 20th century they come back and kill jews and cathlics, protestens join the Ku klux klan so the even mudered people of there own religon just for different wirshipping ways. Also the burnings millions of wemen werer kill for witch craf the resons as simple as having a pointy nose, (I like history lol) I'm year 8 and iv been wicca for almost two years. I think this thread is biased, not all christeins hate us but a far few do :)
Because they realise that there is a better religion than theirs..... I had christian friends, then when they asked me what I believe I told them, they ended our friendship..... So ye, I'm not very fond of christians myself, they judge, and listen to really crappy music;)
(Sorry, I know it's TL;DR but read it anyways.) Paganism Isn't a religion. It's a blanket term. It's broadest definition is anyone not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim. That means: Atheists, Satanists, Wiccans, Non Christian/Jewish/Muslim Occultists, New-Age people, Agnostics, [Insert Ancient Culture Here] Neo-Pagans/Reconstructionists, and even the Abrahamic Baha'I Faith... ALL ARE PAGANS!
Now, to answer the original Q. Many Christian Churches, have a bad case of the "We're RIGHT! They're WRONG!" syndrome. Very horrible disease, often caused by Ego and Ignorance. Now, of course, the majority of Christians go to Church. Since Many Churches have this disease... Many of the Christians that go to one of these diseased churches, wind up catching the disease themselves...
Christians don't hate Pagans. Those that do tend to be taught to Hate them. The reasons vary, depending on who taught them. Sometimes, a Christian reads the bible, and makes up their own min. Often these types of Christians are the more open minded of their kind. However. Some come to similar, dogmatic, conclusions as the Churches.
But I also think their might be a more psychological reason. Many Christians like to feel god is validated by their faith in him. Thus: When they see a "Pagan", one that has their own brand of faith, they get defensive. Because they know deep down that the "My Faith in God, and the Presence I feel is powerful! IT MUST BE TRUE!" argument, can ALSO be used by these "Pagans". That, perhaps, these Pagan Beliefs might Also be Valid. If said Christian believes, like the majority of them do, that God is the only truth... Then, obviously, someone who believes so strongly in the existence of other gods, could be seen as a threatening prospect.
I can say that not all Christians hate Wiccans or Pagans. Unfortunately, it is like some others have said, a subset who have a holier than thou attitude and believe only their view and faith is true. Sadly, a lot of churches have in the past, and some still do, teach this type of intolerance.
In some cases, like with the Islamic faith, the media, government, politicans, churches and various social organizations demonize it because of a small portion of the faith.
The best answer I can give, is blind faith and lack of education. Personally, I was born and raised Roman Catholic, but have found there to be a large number of teachings that I don't agree with as I get older. I have never been one for blind obedience. I see beauty and validity to all true faiths (any faith that does not teach hatred and violence). There is a lot we can learn from each other, if we allow ourselves to learn.
We [Wiccians] believe there are more then one god and goddess. Where more spiritual and open minded, very connected with mother earth. Where Christians believe we are,because most of our remedies are natural such as herbies, spices, potions, candles, incense and yes spells, there's white magic and black magic.
I do not believe that christian people hate pagans because I myself am pagan and have mainly christian friends. They accept me for who I am as a person and realize that everyone has their differences.
It seems quite a few of your pagans are just inverted snobs. Can't they see they are as intolerant as any christian they mention, the only reason they took up paganism I beleive is because its fashionable, I follow the christian faith and from the people ive met not one as ever condemed any one from other beleifs, I think maybe the commentators are just guessing or maybe they get enjoyment out of theire perception of not being liked.
