God involved in Paganism.

Converting to Paganism is something that really interests me..I was born a catholic but in no way believe most teachings. However, I strongly believe in God and pray everyday. God is something I have accepted recently into my life, and I am strongly devoted and loving of him.
In paganism, is God worshipped as strongly as in other religions, like christianity and such?..What I'm curious is to, if I were to think of converting, is God still a major role in the Pagan religion?

 

Are you asking about the Christian God's role in Paganism ? Also I'm curious what about converting to Paganism interests you.

 

Yes it depends on how you phrase the question. God worship is regarded fairly high, but not the christian Jehova usually. Hence the term "pagan".

 

first you have to define worship..... to me, worship is simply being grateful for the love we recieve so godamn much of every day if you just open your eyes up to it. it also means trying to spread this same love that sustains our very beings to the best of our ability. i think that is something every religion pretty much agrees on if you look into what the founders truely intended to teach, is love. and i dont think you can just 'convert' to paganism. say i wanna convert to christianity and start calling myself a christian without actually doing or changing anything, whats the point? sure many christians would readily accept me into their cult but what good did i really do? spirituality is a personal thing that goes far beyond a label... and if you believe and god and pray, then right on. so do i and i believe in a lot of pagan ideas and a lot of religious ideas too, they all have something to offer and no one religion is going to have all of the right answers for you even though paganism might have the most. its all just life you know, not religion or names. answers are in life, not in names and shit like that, know what i mean?

but i think the main idea in paganism is that there is more than one god or more than one spirit running and pulling things on a level unpercieveable to us, which sordove makes more sense to me than one supreme being running the entire show. but to be honest i have no clue how any of that works. its an amazing mystery, just accept it and love it.

 

Being pagan is quite liberal. If you want to incorporate Christian practice in your pagan spirituality, by all means do so, and to the degree you feel comfortable. There really is no right or wrong way of doing it.

 

I feel I may have worded the 'converting' part wrong. I was meaning to say something more so on the lines of, incorporating paganism into my spiritual life..
I've tried a while to find a 'religion' other than having to explain to others while I strongly believe in Christ, I have no religion. Paganism interests me, I will look more into it, and if I like what I find, it may be something I'd intertwine with my current belifs..

 

Why not just create your own beliefs? Go with whatever feels right to you, it is not necessary to follow some preexisting religion, somebody simply made it up some other time anyway.

 

indeed pagan religion (voodoo) and christianity have been blended and turned into a formal religion for years on Haiti

 

hm, not so sure I'm familiar..

 

"In Paganism"
This sounds like you think paganism is just one religion or philosophy.

Basically, being a pagan (to me) means I'm giving the big F-U monotheistic religions, their gods, and to JC for being a false messiah and most importantly, not a real person. I practice and believe what I want--which right now is leaning towards druidism.

By most definitions, being pagan means not acknowledging the god of christianity, judaism and islam. Somebody once said "Paganism is like an umbrella.. it has a lot of shit under it."

It's ok to make up whatever beliefs you want, though. Who cares what you call it or what 'category' if fits into?

 

I agree that you can........

I still talk to the christian God all the time (praying I guess you could call it)
when I started practicing wicca I found it really hard to stop believing in the God that I've talked to my entire life so I just believe in all the wiccan Gods but I put the christian God on the top of the list. and now I feel really comfortable in what I believe in.

 

i think paganism is mainly nature based. so "god" in a pagan religion is the earth, no the universe. as the creator, not necesarrily a creeation. notice, that most monotheistic eligions dont really mention nature and the earth to any concern....from what ive noticed. paganism is, to me, about nature, and my god is our univverse, the animals, us, the tees, and so on.

 

That's really interesting..

the thing for me is this..I strongly believe in God, it's just in these past few months that I have been, "saved" so to say. I was brought up in the whole, no other God before I sense, and my cousin-who I seriously look to for spiritual advice, presses the idea apon me of taking no other God before him. So, when Ithink of taking another religion, for some reason i feel like i am 'forsaking' my God, it almost makes me feel ashamed, or guilty..

 

There are many, many ways to be Pagan.

A few weeks ago I told a woman I know that I am Pagan and she asked me if I believed in God. I said "yes," because I didn't feel like handling her response to my real response. The real response would have been to ask her, "Which one?"

I believe in God, but I believe that God is both male and female...God and Goddess. I sense God's presence in nature more so than in a church.

There's a good book called "Paganism..." and the rest of the title has something about earth-centered religions. It's by the Higginbothams. Get to the nearest large chain bookstore asap and get a copy. It sounds like a perfect book for someone in your situation.

 

Converting from Catholicism to Paganism, eh?

Not much of a stretch, since you see images of the "virgin mother" everywhere. If that's not Goddess worship I don't know what is. Read "The DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown. If you were raised Catholic it will seriously screw with your head. The Catholic Church has gone so far as to write a book rebutting the assertions made in the DaVinci Code, which was A WORK OF FICTION.

Methinks they doth protest too much...

 

Not just voodoo, there's Cao Dai, Santeria, Palo Mayombe, Macumba....

 

If you want my advice... if you're looking for religion (which I personaly think is a bad thing, but some people find peace in it, so that's up to them), but what you need to do is find a religion that fits you... don't try and fit yourself to a religion.

Now, if you ask me, it sounds very much like you don't need paganism to feel happy... you already have a relationship with god, and i'm sure that he has let you know what he wants you to do, so continue to do that.

(Just for the record, I don't believe in god, I do however believe that a person's belief in god is a way of helping them to communicate with themselves, and if it makes you happy, then there is no harm in that, so listen to god (yourself) and do what YOU (not someone else) feel is right).

 

Shock Horror .. 'made it up' Nooooooooooooooo

 

I know I must have just now shattered your whole world view.. Sorry.

 

Why not? Every other religion in the world is 'made up'!