Pagan
by rogue on Mar.08, 2011
Many people like to argue over the meaning of the word pagan. The original meaning was country dweller and it has changed to mean a collection of untraditional religions although there are those who argue that it is actually a religion on its own and others who argue that it is a collection of nontraditional religions but is more specific to the details of what qualifies the religion to be called a pagan religion. No matter what one might believe the true definition of pagan is, the fact that the argument of its meaning is so widespread and passionately argued make only one thing apparent.
Pagan is no longer any better of a descriptor than thig-a-magig. The meaning carries so many meanings that its use is obsolete to communicate any type of idea and being the point of words is to communicate and preferably to do so clearly the use of pagan has become obsolete as a means of communication as it only confuses the subject. After all even when seen in a proper sentence the definition is still left up to the interpretor. Thus it should fall to the side and more well defined words should be used to describe and converse about the religions that fall under the umbrella of pagan.
There are words that have followed the same pattern i.e. what do you thing of when you see a sentence that says "John and his friend frolliced gayly" I'd bet your first thought is that john and hes friend are homosexuals, or does it mean they played happily. Only the writer of the sentence knows and it can paint a very unclear or inaccurate picture. For this reason the word gay has been dropped from literature for the most part.
In my opinion pagan should follow suite and be dropped and be replaced by a more suitable description, word or phrases that better describe what people believe in and to describe alternitive religions.
