I am doing some research on becoming a pagan

I have come across a video on YouTube claiming the number of pagans is increasing. Do you agree with the claims made in this video?


Thanks

 

In 1990, Trinity College in Connecticut estimated there were 8,000 adherents of Wicca. In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau figure was 342,000. A 2014 Pew Research Center study increased that projection several times over in assessing that 0.4% of Americans identified as pagan, Wiccan or New Age; 1.3 million Americans.

 

It presents a somewhat rosy picture of paganism, but to the best of my knowledge, the video is reasonably accurate in giving an overview of the religion. The tone of the presentation is sometimes more glowing than the facts. Pagans probably account for less than 1% of the U.S. population--about the size of a smallish Protestant denomination like the Congregationalists or the Quakers--not exactly taking the country by storm, although Christianity also started out small. Paganism is an umbrella term for a wide variety of religions--just as Christianity contains a wide variety of denominations, some very different from others. Wicca is a fairly modern syncretic construct, heavily influenced by traditional Celtic religions and the occult. It actually tends to be duotheistic, worshiping the 'Great Goddess" and the "Great Horned God', who have various manifestations in other deities. The video identifies other ancient European traditions as: Druid, Asatru (Norse), Kemitic (Egyptian), Hellenic, etc.
The video gives four plausible reasons for renewed interest in paganism: (1) connection with nature and "ancient wisdom"; (2) greater flexibility and lack of dogma; (3) interest in ancestry and heritage; and (4) the growth of social media. Sadly, superstition and irrationality seem to be problems for the pagans, as for Christians. It's, of course, true that the religion picked up in the counterculture of the sixties and seventies--especially as a result of the environmental and "back to nature" movements. It's future in an era of resurgent Christian nationalism and MAGA Retrumplicanism is uncertain. Those movements also seem to be growing at a robust rate.

It depends on how we define "pagan". It used to be subsumed under the generic category "other faiths". The Pew survey lumps pagans together with New Agers--adding up to that 0.4%. Religious Landscape Study But that category breaks down into a pagan component accounting for about three-quarters of the total-- other New Agers being mainly those influenced mainly by Gnosticism, Asian world religions, and the esoteric beliefs and practices of the occult. So the "just pagans" accounted for 0.3% of the population at the time, or 956,000 altogether. Modern paganism in the United States - Wikipedia Wicca is the largest component of that pagan population (about half). Native American religions (curiously) are treated as a separate category from "pagan", for reasons that seem obscure. The Pew survey gives the total for Native American religions as 0.3% of the U.S. total--which, if considered "pagan", would about double the total figure for pagans. I tend to use the term "pagan" to include all animists and polytheists, which would bring in both the European-style pagans and the Native Americans, as well as West African-influenced religions of the Yoruba/Ifá diaspora (voodoo, Santeria, and Candomblé).

Pagans exist in distinction from the major world religions, the atheists, and the "nones". People call themselves "pagan" for a variety of reasons--especially as a way of recognizing commonalities distinguishing themselves from other faiths. The term "Christian" was actually foisted on Jesus followers by pagans in Antioch, who used it to distinguish them from other Jews. Acts 11:26 Followers of Jesus used to go by the labels "Nazerenes" or "the Way." But we decided to go with the flow and adopt the name coined by our critics. Christians experienced their share of persecution back then, at the hands of pagan mobs and governments.
Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire - Wikipedia
Religious persecution in the Roman Empire - Wikipedia
On the Persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire on JSTOR

As Christians became more prominent in the urban centers of the Fourth century Roman world, they coined the term "pagan" (literally,"rustic") to denote their more rural polytheistic opponents--the term basically meaning "rube", "hick" or "hayseed". Pagans don't seem to be making a fuss about it, and seem to have accepted the label--much as Christians accepted the one Antioch pagans pinned on them.

 

Yes, not a significant amount. But for us it's a pretty decent amount. I think its probably harder to get more accurate numbers, since many people are in the broom closet.