Are atheists pagans?

Some do. It depends on how the different religions view the concept of god. Like, most theistic Christians would probably take that as "I don't believe in your view of morality". But it depends.
 
I always thought the "irreligious" or "no religion" aspect of pagan was a Christian derogatory term interchangable with "heathen" and "savage". In my corner of the Universe, it's why a lot of my friends who were into paganism were slow to pick up the label. Prevailing cultural ideologies, and all, you know.
 
Yeah; for many centuries, it has been. But, slowly and surely, modern pagans are taking that word back. Several of my friends are neopagans of various kinds, and use that term as a self-descriptive definition.
 
Hapsburg said:
Yeah; for many centuries, it has been. But, slowly and surely, modern pagans are taking that word back. Several of my friends are neopagans of various kinds, and use that term as a self-descriptive definition.
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I think that's a good way to put the issue. It might have been use for a while to include atheists in pagans, but to do so today would generally be misleading and confusing. Unless it was one fundamentalist Christian to another. Especially in a forum like this using pagan as a term to include atheists is poor communication.
 
Exactly.
Generally, excluding the rare example of eclecticism or syncreticism (i.e, myself), equating atheism and paganism would be a major misnomer.
 
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