Paganism is defined as any religious worship or ceremonial honor of the earth, animals, people, dead ancestors or any diety except the Christian God. Paganism is a very broad category of beliefs. There are Satanists, worship of the anti-christ, wiccans-witches, and many others. Basically paganism is worship of anything not related to the Christian God, so the unrelenting search for wealth, or greed, could be called paganism too. As to the rating for this answer below, where someone pointed out that Jews, and Buddists could be called pagans, I was trying not to be inflammatory. But that is correct. Click the link http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/pagan , which was provided by eloth...? in the comment. The first definition listed in this dictionary is what I am talkin about. Hindu's Sikhs, buddhists, ect are pagans by this definition. I am not trying to insult anyone. I am a Christian, and even the Jews, who do worship God the Father, but not the son, can be called pagan. I am not calling Jews pagans, I believe they are God's chosen people, and deserve our support, love and respect too. They are mistaken in their beliefs, but will come around when Jesus comes back. This is profesized?sp in the New Testament which I believe with all my heart. Until then, we be their friend and show them the love of Jesus. The same goes for the other religions which fit in the category of pagan. Every knee will bow, every tongue shall confess..

The term Paganism is actually RELATIVE to the existing state of beliefs. I could go on forever here, and there are more than one way to interperet this notion. If your current belief system in a society is say 'Christian', and this Christianity replaced a previous belief system, that previous religion would be referred to as Pagan. This can be seen in action in North America (and elsewhere) in many ways, for example Natives (as in Cree, Blackfoot, Sioux, etc) would be considered Pagan peoples because of their religious and social belief systems. Keep in mind that Paganism need not be expressly religious, although it is commonly and primarily used in this context. A similar example of Paganism can be seen in History with regards to the Roman Empire. At one point, during Gaius Julious Caesar's reign, a Western Province called Gallia Comata (roughly modern day France) was subdued and 'claimed' by the Roman Empire. The natives of this land were 'Pagan' when in the context of Roman occupation. However, if you go back further into history, the previous belief system of the Gauls would be Pagan compared to 'newer' one which was Pagan to the Romans. This brings to fore what is referred to as a Paradigm Shift - when dogma gives way to a new line of thinking. It can be religious, scientific, psychoological, and so forth. The 'old way', particularly if considered 'foreign' is referred to as Pagan. As a consequence, you may read a book which utilizes a metaphor calling something Pagan when in fact it doesn't fit the 'Websters Dictionary' definition. By the way, Caesar means "good head of hair", and 'Gallia Comata' means "Gaul of the Long Hairs". ;) Cheers

Pagan in history has merely been a relative term to ones own faith, since the faith you follow is seen by the true faith by yourself, all other faiths are therefore pagan. In these modern times, Pagan no longer has this these sorts of relativistic definitions. The mainstream beliefs these days, the variant Christian faiths, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Islam, and the other common faiths are no longer considered Pagan. Even in Paganism there is division, there are the actual religious Pagans, and many varieties of poseurs, unfaithfuls, and craftbabies(people introduced to paganism through tv and movies). Now if we focus on the actual truly faithful pagans, we seee at the base of it all as earth worship. Believing that the earth is worthy of being worshipped, is what Paganism is all about, it is a return to earth based religion. Too many people get caught up in the culture of Paganism instead of the beliefs, maybe they like wearing pentacles and using pestles, or maybe its a group they think will let them fit into, or they think its just cool. I brought it up before and I will restate the fact: if you worship the earth truly, which means being environmentally consciouse, and you pay homage to it, then you can define yourself as being a pagan, because Paganism is so focused on independance and self-expression, sometimes ironically till everyone is independant in the exact same way, that any organization or structure that may have once existed, has been abandoned.

It's hard to really define what the tenets of Paganism are since it is a diverse group of believers. Strictly speaking, Paganism includes such spiritual philosophies as Wicca, Asatru, Hellênismos, Romuva and those of the Celtic peoples (Druidism, for example). Most of the current religions that are considered Pagan are revived forms of older religions predating Christianity. Generally speaking, in Western society, the term "pagan" has come to refer to any religion that is outside the common ones of the time. For example, some Christians might consider Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians to be pagan religions, while some Muslims might consider Jews, Christians, Hindus, Shintos and Sikhs to be pagan. In this respect, the term pagan is not a very accurate term. It's used in a very subjective manner, similar to the current usage of "cult". For more information on what constitutes the Pagan religions and their beliefs, visit http://dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Pagan/

Like stated above Paganism is a very large and broad topic, whatever religion you are the rest are the pagans. As I’ve studied this if you look into the practices of the Pagans there are very similar teachings and truths involved in all religions, I’ve heard it referred to as The Golden Thread this thread has itself in all religions even paganism, so what are the beliefs? They are practices that once upon a time were pure, but through apostasy and time and corruption, they became strange and full of pomp and mystery, to where when people look on the outside they say that it is totally going the wrong direction, but if you study far into it you begin to see the symbolism of the things they do. So to sum up what Paganism is, it is the truths of God mingled with the opinions and corruption of man.

Paganism is not a single religion, but a category of religions. From the Cambridge Online Dictionary: pagan adjective 1 belonging to a religion which worships many gods, especially one which existed before the main world religions: a pagan religion The Easter egg has both pagan and Christian origins. 2 relating to religious beliefs that do not belong to any of the main religions of the world: a pagan festival pagan noun [C] 1 a person who has pagan beliefs 2 HUMOROUS a person who has no religious beliefs Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin paganus, from Latin, civilian, country dweller, from pagus country district; akin to Latin pangere to fix In general, when one speaks of pagan religions (lowercase p), it refers to the indigenous religions that existed prior to the prolific spread of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These religions tend to be polytheistic. When one speaks of Pagan religions (uppercase p), one is generally referring to Neo-pagan religions. These include reconstructionist religions (Hellenism, Asatru, Druidism, etc) and new religions (Wicca). Because the word pagan/Pagan always refers to a grouping of religions, it is impossible to give a set of beliefs. Beliefs vary by the individual religion.

Everyone has made very valid, very good points.... but it seems no one has actually made an attempt to really answer the question. Which is not, "What is paganism". EDIT: screeching halt, Kim I missed yours, your is great but let me say: However, "What are the beliefs of Paganism?"... is rather broad. Let me say I consider myself "Pagan". I believe the question possibly should have been: What do Pagans believe? Well now, I am Pagan but I do not believe the same as every other Pagan. It has a lot to do with self-discovery and what do YOU (as a person, as a spiritual bieng), what do YOU believe? Pagans believe, as far as I have ascertained, that the journey to knowing what one truly believes is essential. Just because Johnny says the cloud looks like a kitten, does not mean you will see a kitten when you look at the same cloud. I believe this to be a very good analogy for the way I believe. If it looks like a kitten to Johnny, then, to Johnny, it is, in fact a kitten. However to you if it appears to be say, a baseball glove, then that is in fact what it is to you! Niether Johnny nor you can be completely correct about what it looks like to the other. (Of course someone will probably say oh, it looks like a cloud.... gee thanks Einstien, butt out lol) Let me also clarify, don't pull things out of the blue and try to tell others that IS how it is. (you'd be suprised what negative things come of that) ...... no names, no names... ok. Anyway, Discover what you believe, and either fit it into another spirituality or religion or maintain what you know to be true, and be Pagan, not really playing by another relgions rules. I bridge between like 5 religions, so I maintain that I am Pagan bieng that nothing fits exactly. Example: I believe in "The All" Who can be as many different incarnations as it wants to, Male and Female. Different parts of this Whole bieng maybe called upon for Magickal working and such. Gods and Goddesses are each a part of the whole bieng. There is more to it, but Thats the basics of the hierarchy to ME. I don't know if its exactly right, but its what I believe. Maybe every possible carnation of God or Gods does exist, to me this theory encompasses that notion. I hope I helped lol. Discover for yourself what is important and true and what is not.

most christians would like to believe that they are not the pagans. the pagans to them are those that don't worship as they do. however, all you have to do is look a little closer to the customs of these so called christians religions to come to the conclusion that they have adopted for the most part if not all practices that paganism practiced centuries, if not milleniums ago. for instance the belief in the trinity, where does it originate? in the bible you say? far from it!! the word trinity doesn't even exist in the bible. the trinity originated with the pagan nation of babylon. also the egyptians had triunes of gods, to mention one of other nations that believed in this false pagan doctrine. do your research, this is not an invention on anyone's part. what about the belief in the immortality of the soul? the term "immortal soul" is not, again found in the bible. though you will find the word "soul" and "immortality", however you will not find both words together. so then where did this belief originate? this doctrine that the soul survives death comes from the pagan nations. thousands of years ago the city of babel came up with that belief. then the greeks made it more or less a universal teaching. these were the pagan greeks who worshipped hades as god of the underworld. so now, what about christmas. it is supposed to be a christian holiday. nothing could be further from the truth. again this is a pagan celebration that the catholic church chose to accept, to attract the pagans into converting to this religion. a religion that by then had become an apostate, heretical church opposed to the real teachings of the apostles. she herself became the persecutor of the true christians. the list goes on and on as to where all these practices of the churches of christendom originated. they have been a great tool of the great deceiver satan himself.