Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by z3phyr 2619 days ago
Pagan does not constitute dark. Most of the pagans recorded history when they were in power.
1 comments

Yes, the term is problematic: "pagan" was traditionally just a derogatory term:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism

"The notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition. As such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense. - Owen Davies, Paganism: A Very Short Introduction, 2011"

And another quote from the same Wikipedia page:

"The term pagan is not attested in the English language until the 17th century.[24] In addition to infidel and heretic, it was used as one of several pejorative Christian counterparts to gentile as used in Judaism and to kafir ('unbeliever') and mushrik ('idolater') as in Islam.[25]"