Why Is Paganism Rising?

[Benjamin Karl]

Hi all,

 

Just wanted to hear your opinion on this video. The video is about why paganism is gaining popularity.

Thanks

 

[zapatos]

Welcome to the site Benjamin!

Can you please summarize the video for us?

[Benjamin Karl]

Thanks mate, yes definitely

Paganism is gaining popularity today because

1- It aligns with values and concerns such as a close connection with nature and ancient wisdom.

2- It offers a sustainable and harmonious relationship with the natural world, as well as a flexible and personal spiritual practice.

3- There is also an increasing interest in ancestry and heritage, as people seek to reconnect with the beliefs and practices of their ancestors.

4- The rise of the internet and social media has made it easier for like-minded individuals to connect, share information, and build communities around Pagan practices.

[iNow]

What evidence are you using to validate your premise that paganism is growing? What is your data source?

[zapatos]

I thought it was a really well done and interesting video. I believe there are always people who are not satisfied with whatever spiritual environment they belong to, and are thus looking elsewhere. As it is no longer dangerous (usually) to refute the major religions it is not surprising that many people find that pagan practices correlate with their own beliefs.

I don't think the movement of people from one set of beliefs to another is new, only that looking at historical practices is more popular than it has been in the past.

[Benjamin Karl]

6 minutes ago, iNow said:

What evidence are you using to validate your premise that paganism is growing? What is your data source?

I am not making any claim mate, it is the video that is making the claims.

I read the comments on YouTube and it seems majority are pagans. Just wanted to see what a wider audience with different religious background thinks about the video.

4 minutes ago, zapatos said:

I thought it was a really well done and interesting video. I believe there are always people who are not satisfied with whatever spiritual environment they belong to, and are thus looking elsewhere. As it is no longer dangerous (usually) to refute the major religions it is not surprising that many people find that pagan practices correlate with their own beliefs.

I don't think the movement of people from one set of beliefs to another is new, only that looking at historical practices is more popular than it has been in the past.

Thanks for the response mate. So you think the number of pagans increasing and find the claims valid? 

[zapatos]

14 minutes ago, Benjamin Karl said:

Thanks for the response mate. So you think the number of pagans increasing and find the claims valid? 

Certainly. A quick Google search turned up the following article supporting the claim that paganism is increasing. And to me it is not surprising as there is also an increase in nature practices such as forest bathing which dovetails nicely with some pagan practices.

Quote

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. (Most modern pagan worship, of which Wicca is one type, draws on pre-Christian traditions in revering nature.) By 2050, it said, the number of Americans practicing “other religions” — faiths outside Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism — would triple “due largely to switching into other religions (such as Wicca and pagan religions).” 

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/paganism-witchcraft-are-making-comeback-rcna54444

[iNow]

1 hour ago, Benjamin Karl said:

I am not making any claim mate, it is the video that is making the claims.

YOU created an account here.

YOU created this thread.

YOU authored the thread Title which explicitly claims that paganism is on the rise  

YOU shared the video.

The video makes claims which were questioned. The onus falls to YOU to support them when asked / challenged. 

Are you unwilling, unable, or just here in bad faith to spam a video?

1 hour ago, Benjamin Karl said:

I read the comments on YouTube and it seems majority are pagans

Oh, well now that you put it that way, I’m totally convinced. Gosh and golly. Why didn’t you just say so?

53 minutes ago, zapatos said:

A quick Google search turned up the following article supporting the claim that paganism is increasing.

Is this just because population as a whole is increasing thus total number of pagans is rising, or has the percentage of our overall population self-identifying as pagan gone up?

If the total number on net is higher, but the per capita percentage has dropped, then saying it’s on the rise is a misdirection. I saw the article you googled and was hoping for something more recent than a decade ago. 

But that responsibility belongs to the OP, not me. 

[zapatos]

8 minutes ago, iNow said:

Is this just because population as a whole is increasing thus total number of pagans is rising, or has the percentage of our overall population self-identifying as pagan gone up?

The latter.

8 minutes ago, iNow said:

saw the article you googled and was hoping for something more recent than a decade ago. 

How about one from March of this year?

Quote

At least 1.5 million people in the United States identify as Pagans—up from 134,000 in 2001. They range from Wiccans and Kemetics to TikTok witches and heathens. (See explainer of these groups below.)

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/where-to-go-to-explore-pagan-culture

[Benjamin Karl]

28 minutes ago, iNow said:

YOU created an account here.

YOU created this thread.

YOU authored the thread Title which explicitly claims that paganism is on the rise  

YOU shared the video.

The video makes claims which were questioned. The onus falls to YOU to support them when asked / challenged. 

Are you unwilling, unable, or just here in bad faith to spam a video?

Oh, well now that you put it that way, I’m totally convinced. Gosh and golly. Why didn’t you just say so?

Is this just because population as a whole is increasing thus total number of pagans is rising, or has the percentage of our overall population self-identifying as pagan gone up?

If the total number on net is higher, but the per capita percentage has dropped, then saying it’s on the rise is a misdirection. I saw the article you googled and was hoping for something more recent than a decade ago. 

But that responsibility belongs to the OP, not me. 

No worries mate, thanks for your time

[iNow]

I’m am worried though… mate. I reject your premise. You’ve done nothing to support it. All you’ve shared is a YouTube video. That’s not supporting evidence.

Said another way: You’ve not answered the question put to you, three times now. You’re evading.

Here it is again, for convenience:

What is the evidence validating this premise that paganism is supposedly growing? What is the data source?

39 minutes ago, zapatos said:

How about one from March of this year?

If you drill down into their sources, after you get to the Daily Mail, it then brings you finally a page for something called Quartz. That Quartz page cites a Pew study from 2014… I.e. the same one you already cited above. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by iNow

[Benjamin Karl]

22 minutes ago, iNow said:

You’ve not answered the question put to you

Here it is again, for convenience:

What is the evidence validating this premise that paganism is supposedly growing? What is the data source?

If you drill down into their sources, after you get to the Daily Mail, it then brings you finally a page for something called Quartz. That Quartz page cites a Pew study from 2014… I.e. the same one you already cited above. 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Benjamin Karl

[iNow]

1 minute ago, Benjamin Karl said:

F@3k off

Lol. Bad faith it is. 

[Genady]

I read that the percentage of people who answer "none" to the question of religion, is rising. This is much better than switching one religion for another.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Genady

[Intoscience]

7 hours ago, iNow said:

YOU created an account here.

YOU created this thread.

YOU authored the thread Title which explicitly claims that paganism is on the rise  

YOU shared the video.

The video makes claims which were questioned. The onus falls to YOU to support them when asked / challenged. 

Are you unwilling, unable, or just here in bad faith to spam a video?

 

To be fair to the OP the thread started with - 

9 hours ago, Benjamin Karl said:

Just wanted to hear your opinion on this video. The video is about why paganism is gaining popularity

The OP may well be using the video to make a personal claim but that wasn't exactly clear from the offset, even though the title of the thread suggests such. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Intoscience
spelling

[Genady]

Some people get disappointed with their official religious institutions but instead of dumping the whole notion of religion they go to a softer, mystical version including some forms of paganism.

[exchemist]

2 hours ago, Intoscience said:

 

To be fair to the OP the thread started with - 

The OP may well be using the video to make a personal claim but that wasn't exactly clear from the offset, even though the title of the thread suggests such. 

On this occasion it looks as if @iNow is on the money, cf. This thread, started today on another forum: https://www.religiousforums.com/threads/why-is-paganism-rising.270436/ 

[TheVat]

9 hours ago, iNow said:

Lol. Bad faith it is. 

From a different perspective, it appeared you were badgering a newbie, @Benjamin Karl, who was not making a claim but rather requesting opinions on the claims made in a video.  Whose points he courteously summarized when asked to.  While he could be encouraged to dig deeper for other sources,  I am not sure that your tone was that of a friendly guide in that quest.  

[Phi for All]

12 hours ago, Benjamin Karl said:

Just wanted to hear your opinion on this video. The video is about why paganism is gaining popularity.

!

Moderator Note

We don't review videos. If you want to discuss the rise of paganism, we can do it without padding the views on a YT video. Videos are notoriously difficult to discuss scientifically in a forum like this, and nobody has the time to watch and try to catch all the inconsistencies. If you're only here to support the video, I need to close this, but if you're truly interested in discussing the rise of paganism, you need to present your arguments here, and not require that folks watch a video in order to participate. Also, we'll do it civilly or we won't do it at all. We attack ideas here, not people.

 

[TheVat]

11 hours ago, zapatos said:

I thought it was a really well done and interesting video. I believe there are always people who are not satisfied with whatever spiritual environment they belong to, and are thus looking elsewhere. As it is no longer dangerous (usually) to refute the major religions it is not surprising that many people find that pagan practices correlate with their own beliefs.

I don't think the movement of people from one set of beliefs to another is new, only that looking at historical practices is more popular than it has been in the past.

People used to grow up in more homogeneous communities, which tended to encyst belief systems.  Now we live in an information-rich global village where it's more like going to a huge supermarket of beliefs.  14 brands, 87 varieties of pasta, and that's just half of Aisle 7.  For my parents, growing up in small towns on the Great Plains, it was a big leap to go from being raised Lutheran to attending an Episcopal service.  For my generation, it was much less a leap to go from Episcopal to joining a Buddhist meditation group.

[iNow]

45 minutes ago, TheVat said:

, @Benjamin Karl, who was not making a claim but rather requesting opinions on the claims made in a video

See thread title. It assumes the conclusion. That’s was what I challenged. 

1 hour ago, exchemist said:

On this occasion it looks as if @iNow is on the money, cf. This thread, started today on another forum:

Thx. I try. When you’ve seen this stuff enough times it tends to become more obvious, even if others feel I was being too hard on a science forum for having the audacity to request evidence confirming the core claim. Appreciate the extra evidence ✌🏼

[Phi for All]

14 hours ago, zapatos said:

Certainly. A quick Google search turned up the following article supporting the claim that paganism is increasing.

While I can easily see alternatives to Christo-Fascism gaining in popularity as the white supremacists in the US are taking off their hoods, I do wonder how the recent rise in social media, YouTube video followings, and TikTok lifestyle livestreams have affected the numbers. Certainly it's much easier to count your following today than it was in 1990. How many of these new pagans have always been pagans, just uncounted or misnamed as "free spirits"?

[exchemist]

47 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

While I can easily see alternatives to Christo-Fascism gaining in popularity as the white supremacists in the US are taking off their hoods, I do wonder how the recent rise in social media, YouTube video followings, and TikTok lifestyle livestreams have affected the numbers. Certainly it's much easier to count your following today than it was in 1990. How many of these new pagans have always been pagans, just uncounted or misnamed as "free spirits"?

That could be it, but then again the thing about the internet is that it makes everything very readily available to everyone. So it could equally be that people can for the first time easily “shop around” for worldviews/lifestyles/belief systems they find personally appealing, at least to try them out for a bit, to a degree that previous generations would have found much more difficult. 
 

[Mordred]

My wife is a member of our local Pagan society. I will day I personally like their views. The members I have met tend to be more open minded to the beliefs of others.

 As for myself I don't particularly follow any form of faith, however that's just me. I do know the local membership has been steadily growing in my locality.

[swansont]

1 hour ago, Phi for All said:

While I can easily see alternatives to Christo-Fascism gaining in popularity as the white supremacists in the US are taking off their hoods, I do wonder how the recent rise in social media, YouTube video followings, and TikTok lifestyle livestreams have affected the numbers. Certainly it's much easier to count your following today than it was in 1990. How many of these new pagans have always been pagans, just uncounted or misnamed as "free spirits"?

I think that any small category of people have benefitted from the ability to connect. You have disaffected people in the majority or plurality group going through the motions who become aware there is an alternative that’s a better fit. It’s a bit like buyer’s remorse, but you’re finding out after the fact, and you can trade in your religion (or belief).

Also the fact that you can do so online means you don’t face the same pressures of IRL interaction until (possibly) after locating a group that fits you. If you have somewhere to go, being shunned by your former group might be palatable.