I am not a religious person, and I have generally a very negative attitude towards religions, particularly the monotheist ones, the major world religions. The fact that billions of people today are taught that just one god has all power in a world that obviously is not perfect must have consequences for the other parts of their thinking and has to be one of the major reasons for the confused state most civilisations are in. However, I have more understanding and sympathy for the polytheist religions, or the Pagan ones to use a traditional and honourable term, because in principle they offer a more understandable and useful picture of the world and don't confuse and manipulate their adherents with twisted sophistry to the same extent as the other religions.
In the mid 19th century Julius Robert von Mayer, James Prescott Joule and Hermann von Helmholtz taught us that the world is not perfect, when they found out that the amount of energy in the universe is constant. No energy can be created or disappear, it can only change from one form to another. In the perfect world, there are no problems, difficulty or toil, everything is easy, you can fly as fast as your thought, careen from galaxy to galaxy on the hyperdrive of fantasy - everything is possible, nothing costs anything, everyone can be fed, nothing is broken, noone dies or grows old, it is a world we know from dreams or read about in books for dreamers. It does not exist in reality.
In the real world, you can choose between doing something and not doing something. If you choose to do something, you need energy. That is: food. To get food, you have to do something. Hence, you have to do something to be able to do anything. This is what we call life. An unending quest for the energy you need to get energy. At a very early stage, the life forms on Earth started exploiting each other to get hold of energy. We commit unfriendly acts towards each other to get the energy we need to live another day and commit more unfriendly acts. We protect our bodies and the food that we have against other life forms who think that they have the same rights to survive as ourselves. Often, we destroy other living things to get the energy they have acquired or to stop them from getting the energy we have acquired. This is not a perfect world. Every organism knows this, and struggles its best to acquire enough energy to be able to relax a little and get more out of life than this endless struggling and unfriendliness.
In the real world, we are sometimes lucky and sometimes unlucky. Sometimes, some of us have mishaps. Sometimes they happen because we've been silly and just don't deserve any better, but other times, they happen even if we haven't been silly. Some of the mishaps happen because a person wants to hurt us, e.g. a mugger, a soldier or a politician, but others happen even if noone wants to hurt us, like a landslide, an earthquake or a shipwreck. Mishaps have always been a problem for the monotheists. They have tried to explain them by conjuring up a demon who is sometimes mightier than their almighty god, which is quite absurd really, or by assuming that all our mishaps are caused by sins or lack of faith, leading to the conclusion that all who have great mishaps also are great sinners, which is not only absurd, but also devilishly unfair.
Pagans explain such luck or lack of it as influence from different forces of nature. An earthquake is due to Poseidon, a storm at sea Boreas, a volcanic eruption Hephaistos, and so on. Gods who are forces of nature, but persons we can relate to as well. In this way, their world gets a little easier to understand than for the poor monotheist who tries to find out where he has failed since his god does not protect him any more. To guard against mishaps, we can use the strength and the resources that nature has given us, and if we aren't certain that they are enough, we can pray to a god whom we trust and possibly get the extra strength and sureness that we need. Sometimes we are still disappointed despite all precautions, and if it turns out that the god we trusted fails us, there are others to choose from. This way, a Pagan has certain advantages.
Monotheists believe in a god who is their great father and creator who will protect them against all dangers. At the same time, this god is almighty and doesn't let a sparrow fall to the ground unless it is his will. To sort out this problem, monotheists either wring their head until it bursts, or they stop thinking altogether, allowing it to thrive and blossom to full maturity. In contrast, Pagans know that gods aren't necessarily the friends of men. They are the free forces of nature and our wishes can't rule them. Remember, they are not only the gods of people, they are gods of all living creatures, in fact of everything in the universe, including enemies and carnivores and storms and bad harvests and everything scheming to hurt you. Possibly, one of them might favour you some day, it's called luck. But you can't trust them.
To gain the favour of the gods, humans have turned to many different means in the course of time. In various rituals they hope to please one or more gods and get the luck that they might bring as a reward. This is also called magic, and it is common in monotheistic societies as well, where athletes, soldiers and others who have particular need of luck rely on a variety of magical rituals. By swearing loyalty to a particular deity or idol and letting its force permeate their lives, they hope that the idol or deity will be favourable to them. Apart from a god, it can be a dead person as well, a hero like Herakles, an emperor or a cult figure like Jesus, Mussolini or Jim Morrison, or it could be a dead relative whom you respect and wish to honour even when he or she is dead and cannot give you their kind gestures and encouragement anymore. Many Buddhists have ancestor altars where they worship and honour their deceased relatives. Take some time to ask a Buddhist in your neighbourhood what his or her thoughts are about the relatives on the altar and what they achieve by worshipping them.
Faith in itself is a particular form of magic which plays a major role in most religions, if not all. Believing in something is contrary to believing something. Such a belief or faith means feeling sure of something, the opposite of being unsure, incertain or doubtful. And if you feel sure, you are more able to make the right decisions fast, because all incertainty, doubt and wavering inhibits or even stifles the instinctive power of decision that we have inherited from our ancestors in the primeval forests, a necessity for survival in their dangerous habitat. If you belive you can make it, then you probably can. If you don't believe it, then you probably won't. It doesn't actually matter what you believe in, because history is full of tales of prophets of the craziest creeds apparently miraculously escaping attempts on their lives because their presence of mind made them choose to be at the wrong place at the right time, as if some god or demon held its hand over them. But it helps believing in something credible, because it simply is easier to believe. You may believe in an invincible god that is your friend and support wherever you go. Imagination is a powerful thing. But you can also believe in something which exists. Like yourself, for instance. Or what about the Earth, the Sun, the Universe, Love, Poetry, Flowers, the Forest, the Mountains, Nature herself, Thunder, the Rainbow, the Storm, Calm, Hope or Free Will? As mentioned above, it is not necessary to believe in just one thing, include all of them and more if you wish.
Pagans have a different attitude towards nature than the monotheists. For those who believe in one god, nature is only something outward, unessential, created by this god to do with as he pleases. The believer is encouraged to concentrate on inner, spiritual values and aim to be like the god himself: remote and unreal. This permeates the monotheistic societies, for better or worse. For Pagans, the gods and nature are one, the gods *are* the forces of nature, they are Sun, Moon, Mountains, Rivers, Trees, Ocean, Earth, Rain, Fire, Love and War, they are very much a part of this world. All things are divine for the Pagans, and they respect and worship them. For Pagans, religion has grown out of the environment in which they live, it is not handed to them by a prophet who thought he was more clever than them. It is their own, developed by, with and for themselves. And when they sit in a sacred grove sharing a meal, they don't think, or don't think only, of an invisible spirit in an exalted heaven, the divinity is there among them, lush and green.
Most Pagans also have another relation to their conscience than the Monotheists. Monotheists usually have a pact with their one god demanding that they follow some rules that the prophet of this god has invented, otherwise the pact is broken, and you are a sinner, condemned to eternal perdition, for if you lose this one god, you have none other to turn to. These rules are often quite numerous and complicated, making it very easy to become a sinner, and thus, this problem has to be solved by hiding your faults or inventing an extra god, a saviour, who can forgive your sins if you regret and re-establish your pact for you. As mentioned above, Pagans also can establish a pact with one specific god and become a follower of this god for life. The pact can readily be life-long, because one single god who represents one aspect of being only demands that you allow this aspect, e.g. love or poetry, to be decisive for the ways of your life. Maybe one day you or the god one day happen to break the pact, but this doesn't mean that you are lost, because the other gods still are there for you, and of course it is possible for Pagans as well to re-establish a pact.
But a Pagan also can live without having a pact with a particular god, because all the gods exist as forces of nature whether you are devoted to them or not. Pagan gods also make demands on the people, because they are forces of nature that affect your life. The Storm demands of you to build sturdy houses, the War demands defence and Love demands seeking a mate, to mention a few examples. All this is part of your own nature, things that you know without having to learn it. If you fight, you know when to stop, if you write music, you know which note to choose next, if someone smiles at you, you smile back. This is called conscience, common sense, spontaneous reactions or instinct, sometimes creativity and fantasy. It is the gods speaking to us.
Unfortunately, we have for several thousands of years turned away from nature and built enormous cultural castles causing common sense to be sometimes inadequate as a guide through the walks of life. Hence, society has equipped us with extra guidance through various cultural traits conveyed through writing or by word of mouth. In Pagan religions, it's often the stories of the poets that set up role models for good behaviour, to be used when the experience of your father and mother is not enough. Sometimes their poems are said to be the saying of one or more of the gods, like in the Norse religion, where Håvamål is held to be the word of Odin. But the gods don't tell you that they will cease to be your gods if you don't follow their advice. Should you err just a little bit, the Wind will not cease to blow, the Sun will not cease to shine and the Fish will not cease to swim in the ocean. The advice is only meant to help you, a guide towards a good life. But take care, the patience of the gods are not unlimited. You can do many deeds that are against the gods, against nature or the forces of nature; you have the ability to do them. But don't think that they can't strike back.
Really popular Pagan religions today exist only in Japan and India: Shintoism and Hinduism, which has offshoots in a couple of other countries. But many countries have indigenous and tribal populations who have retained their natural religions more or less. All of them are under serious threat from Christian and Moslem mission, and from modern technocracy, and many are dwindling fast. Attempts to revitalise natural religion in places where such expansive and aggressive religions more or less have taken over usually imply some risk for loss of health or life. Solidarity with people who fight for survival of their spiritual heritage is important. Therefore, a brotherhood with other Pagans, whether they worship tribal deities in Africa or Polynesia, burn their incense in Indian and Japanese temples or dance around totem poles in America, ought to be a matter of course for any good Pagan.
Many peoples have lost their own Pagan religions and today are numbered among Christians, Muslims, technocrats or members or one of the other major world religions. Some places, the remains of the Pagan way of life are few and weak, but other places there is much left that exerts a strong influence on the lives of the people. In all cases there is a huge cultural loss, and many people are interested in reviving the Pagan religion, to reconstruct what is lost and protect the existing traditions, possibly strengthening and developing them further. There are groups today who worship the Nordic Aesir, there are groups who try to search out the secrets of the ancient Celtic Druids, there are groups who worship the ancient Greek and Egyptian gods. The reconstructive groups are often referred to as Paganists, but their members often dislike that term, thinking that Paganism implies trying to be a Pagan without actually being one. From the outside, many of the Neopagan groups look like they fit this description really well. But some people have done an impressive bit of work to create a credible Pagan alternative, and with some help from YOU, they may some day regain what we have lost.
Some Norwegian Pagan links:
Åsatrofellesskapet Bifrost: http://www.bifrost.no/enghome.html
Åsatrofellesskapet Forn Sed: http://www.forn-sed.no/main/english/english.htm
Nordic Paganist Association: http://pagan.fotspor.net/
An article on how the ancient
Norse related to death (in Norwegian).
Hellenic neopaganism: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/HNP.html
Hinduism Today: http://www.hinduism-today.com/
An introduction to Druidism: http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc257/nrms/drud.html
A Neodruidist interpretation: http://groups.msn.com/CromansGrove/whatisdruidism.msnw
The Norwegian Wicca: http://www.eutopia.no/Heksekunst.htm