pray for the pagan babies

 

When I was in elementary school at a Catholic grade school, we frequently prayed for the pagan babies, and on occasion, a collection was taken up to pass on our small change to them.

Later in life, I came to realize that pagan babies were any children who were not Catholic. During the same time period, Protestants thought that anyone who was not a Protestant, including Catholics, was a pagan baby.

I didn’t think about pagans again until years later, when I was living in Evanston, Illinois. As you may be aware, Evanston is a city of churches, and I vowed that I was going to visit every church in town to see what they were like. Since I always worked on Friday nights, I never had a chance to visit any synagogues or mosques, but I still managed to view roughly 65 different churches before I ran out of steam. Eventually, I started attending one of the Lutheran churches because I liked the pastor. In addition to the fact that he was an interesting guy to listen to, he also hosted beer and Bible night.

How could I resist?

During the same time period, I also attended a few of the meetup groups that popped up in the paper. One of the most intriguing was the pagan group that met in downtown Chicago. Ironically, they met at DePaul University, which happens to be the largest Catholic University in the country.

At the first meeting, I was struck by how NORMAL the folks in attendance were. There weren’t any people dressed in witch doctor garb or wearing witches clothing. Their appearance was no different than what you and I wear, and no one in attendance was ranting incoherently, or doing strange chants.

There are NUMEROUS books about paganism on Amazon. If you went through the entire list, you’d come up with several hundred, since the listings to on for about 75 pages. I remember reading 1 or 2 of them, and was struck by the fact that the proper name for pagans is “earth spiritualist” since they derive their religion from nature, much the same as what native Americans do.

Closely related to paganism are wiccans, which is another name for witches. Believe it or not, there are a number of pagans and wiccans who serve in the military, and their gravestones can exhibit the symbol for their religion.

  

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pagans&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

 

When we envision pagans, we typically think of ancient societies who worshipped many gods, which is another name for polytheistic societies.

Polytheism - Ancient World
Polytheism was wide spread in the ancient world. The Egyptians had a highly developed belief system that was based on multiple gods. These gods were the cornerstone of Egyptian culture and still fascinate us today. The ancient Greeks also had an intricate system of myths based on multiple deities. The Greek gods often took on human forms and personalities, and in many cases, directly interfered with human activities. When the Roman Empire conquered the Greeks, the Romans assimilated much of the Greek polytheistic culture. Over time, as Rome's influence spread, it absorbed other gods from the other cultures that it conquered. In addition to Egypt, Greece and Rome, polytheism was widespread in ancient Asian, African, European and Native American cultures.

Polytheism - Modern World
Polytheism still represents much of the world today. Except for the monotheistic (belief in one God) religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, most of the world's religions are overwhelmingly polytheistic. Polytheism characterizes the beliefs of Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Shintoism in the East, and also contemporary tribal religions in Africa and the Americas. These religions are widely practiced throughout the world and remain very popular in their ancestral areas.

Some polytheistic beliefs are also popular in today's Western Civilization. This appears to be a result of increased immigration of Eastern cultures and the mainstream popularity of New Age pluralism. Unlike Christian, Jewish and Islamic doctrine, there is rarely an absolute truth associated with polytheistic thinking. Ideas of morality (notions of right and wrong) are relative to the individual or culture. Each believer is free to worship the god of his or her choice in the manner of his or her liking. As a result, each person is free to behave as he or she sees fit. Although polytheistic systems provide flexibility and a relativistic lack of accountability, they often leave followers with no sense of ultimate purpose and no prospect for eternal hope. Monotheistic faiths such as Christianity teach that absolute truth is reality, mankind is on earth for a purpose, and eternal salvation is possible for those seeking a reconciled relationship with the one true God.

https://www.allabouthistory.org/polytheism.htm

There is a vast difference between ancient paganism and modern paganism (which is called neo-paganism.) Another name for ancient paganism is animism, which is technically the oldest religion in the world, even though Hinduism is considered to be the oldest FORMAL religion, and it goes back about 5000 years.

Animism is the oldest religion on Earth. Still practiced today, this ancient way of thinking has roots in the earliest religious thoughts of mankind. Animism is the belief that all things, from animals to rivers, are alive and animated. It dates back to the Paleolithic Age, far before organized religion was ever even considered. Frankly, animism predates organized society, much less organized religion. It was the belief system of hunter-gatherers who were still far from becoming the dominant species on Earth. The sheer age of the religion, however, goes to show that even when humans were struggling to survive, they believed that there was something more to this world. 

https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/what-faith-is-the-oldest.aspx

Hinduism is often considered to be the oldest of the world religions with a history stretching back over 5,000 years. This would make Hinduism the oldest major religion by far. Unfortunately, there is no proof that Hinduism as it is known today was practiced in the lost culture of the Indus River Valley Civilization. Many of the carvings from that period resemble more contemporary depictions of Hindu gods, and it appears the ancient people worshiped a pair of male and female deities who are often associated with early depictions of Shiva and Shakti. There is a great deal of writing that survived from this society, and those texts may have the answers scholars seek. 

 Unfortunately, no one alive knows how to read the ancient language. As such, a better date for the beginning of Hinduism would be in 1500 B.C. when what is known as the Vedic period began. This still makes Hinduism noticeably older than most other religions, but it is in serious competition with Zoroastrianism.

 Zoroastrianism or Mazdayasna is one of the oldest religions in the world. It is a monotheistic religion that is believed to have begun between 2,000 and 1,000 B.C. but would not be mentioned in surviving records until the mid-5th century B.C. The founder of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster or Zarathustra, is believed to have lived between 1200 and 1500 B.C. 

The older religions are, the harder they tend to be to accurately date. As Judaism lacks a single founder as is found in Christianity and Islam, Judaism has to be dated through other means. While there is considerable debate about what should be considered the beginning of Judaism, most scholars place the religion’s birth in the Bronze Age. This would make Judaism more than 3,000 years old. Depending on how one dates the religion, however, it could be markedly older. 

Rather like Christianity, Buddhism can be dated from either its founder’s birth or from the event that would come to define the religion. Siddhartha Gautama, who would come to be known as Gautama Buddha or simply the Buddha, was born in Nepal in the 6th century. The actual date of his birth is widely debated, but the general timeframe would place Buddhism as being around 2,600 years old. 

Taoism is a religion that was begun in China in the late 4th century B.C. by a man named Lao Tzu. Also spelled Lao Tsu and Laozi, Lao Tzu is believed to have been a great philosopher and writer of the “Tao Te Ching.” Taoists and scholars disagree on when exactly Lao Tzu lived. Most Taoists believe that Lao Tzu was a contemporary of Confucius. This would place Taoism as beginning in the 6th century B.C. Most historians, however, believe that Lao Tzu was born during the Warring States period in the early part of the 4th century.

 The Gregorian calendar, the calendar most commonly used in the world today, is based on the birth of Jesus Christ. As such, Christianity is almost painfully easy to date. Christ was born in the year 0 A.D. Christians tend to hold this as the beginning of Christianity because Christ’s birth on Earth was the beginning of the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies. In reality, however, Christianity would be best dated to be a little younger than the current calendar year. While the birth of Jesus of Nazareth would be an event that would come to shape the modern world, Christianity did not truly begin until the death and resurrection of Christ in A.D. 30. Without that event, Christ would have remained a powerful, charismatic prophet. It was His resurrection that forever separated Christianity from Judaism. As such, Christianity would be just under 2,000 years old. 

Islam is the youngest of the major world religions. Its founder, Muhammad, was born in Mecca in A.D. 570. When he was an adult, Muhammad received a series of revelations from the angel Gabriel. These revelations would become the Quran, the holy book of Islam, and Muhammad’s followers would come to be known as Muslims. 

The early Muslims emigrated from Mecca to Medina in A.D. 622. It is in this year that the Muslim calendar begins. Either this year or the year when Muhammad is said to have received the first vision from Gabriel would be best considered to be the birth date of Islam.

 

Neopaganism is one of the youngest religions in the world. Wicca, arguably the best known Neopagan religion today, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century. It was not until the 1950s that the movement became known to the general public. 

Neopagan beliefs and practices are derived from and based on the religions of the ancient Greeks, Celts, Egyptians and Mesopotamians. Contemporary Neopaganism, however, differs greatly from its ancient ancestors. Modern Druids, for example, often see themselves as peacekeepers and work to live lives that avoid violence of any kind. Ancient Celtic Druids most likely participated in human sacrifice.

The Baháʼí Faith (/bəˈhɑːʔiː, bəˈhaɪ/; Persian: بهائی‎ Bahāʼi) is a relatively new religion^[a] teaching the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people.^[b] Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception.^[13] The religion is estimated to have over five million adherents, known as Baháʼís, spread throughout most of the world's countries and territories.^[14]

The religion has three central figures: the Báb (1819–1850), considered a herald who taught that God would soon send a prophet in the same way of Jesus or Muhammad, and who was executed by Iranian authorities in 1850; Baháʼu'lláh (1817–1892), who claimed to be that prophet in 1863 and faced exile and imprisonment for most of his life, and his son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1844–1921), who was released from confinement in 1908 and made teaching trips to Europe and the United States. After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death in 1921, leadership of the religion fell to his grandson Shoghi Effendi (1897–1957). Baháʼís annually elect local, regional, and national Spiritual Assemblies that govern the religion's affairs. Every five years the members of all National Spiritual Assemblies elect the Universal House of Justice, the nine-member supreme governing institution of the worldwide Baháʼí community that is located in Haifa, Israel, near the Shrine of the Báb.

According to the Baháʼí teachings, God is single and all-powerful. Baháʼu'lláh taught that religion is revealed in an orderly and progressive way by Manifestations of God, who are the founders of major world religions throughout history; Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad are noted as the most recent of these before the Báb and Baháʼu'lláh. Baháʼís regard the major religions as fundamentally unified in purpose, though varied in social practices and interpretations. The Baháʼí Faith stresses the unity of all people, explicitly rejecting racism and nationalism. At the heart of Baháʼí teachings is the goal of a unified world order that ensures the prosperity of all nations, races, creeds, and classes.

The Baha’I faith is unique in that it respects ALL of the world’s major religions. All Baha’I temples have 9 pillars around them, each of which pays homage to one of the world’s major religions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%CA%BC%C3%AD_Faith    

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, believe it or not, is actually considered to be a legitimate religion.

 

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM, Pastafarianism) teaches that the creator of the universe is an invisible and non-detectable being that resembles spaghetti and meatballs₁. To win favours with the savoury saviour, prayers should end with "R'amen". A collection of writings of fans has been compiled as the Loose Canon, and the founder Bobby Henderson has earned the epithet of "May Pesto Be Upon Him". The Church of the FSM argues that Pastafarianism should also be taught in school alongside evidence-based teachings such as evolution, and that the FSM planted evidence of evolution to confuse scientists. Their true argument is that the whole concept of teachings religious beliefs in science education classes is ridiculous and inappropriate₂. The Church of the FSM is also famous for its adherents presenting arguments for the right to wear colanders on their heads - the truth being that of course, the exact opposite is the case: exemptions for religious folk are daft, and should be dropped.

http://www.humanreligions.info/flying_spaghetti_monster.html

 

I have friends who adhere to a variety of religions, so I’m never going to criticize anyone’s religions, but I also will admit that I’m never going to promote the last religion on the list, since wearing a colander on her head looks a little silly.

None of us really knows where all those pennies that we collected in grade school went, but I’m pretty sure that Father John V. Ryan put them to good use, even if they helped pay for his new DeSoto in 1960.