It came from times before organized religion and outdates even the polytheisms that existed during ancient history. It came from who knows whense.

Pagan is probably the oldest "religion" in the world. That is, if you define "pagan" as a belief in the natural world as being peopled by spirits and powers that cause the world to function. Before there was Jehoveh, before Moses, before Christ and Mohammed there were the natural spirits that were embodied in the sun, moon and stars, the tides and the falling rain, the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. All these mysterious and unexplained demonstrations of power were the messages from unseen spirits who were sending messages to man. The worship of these mysterious forces is what we now call "pagan".

Paganism pertains to ANY FORM OF WORSHIP besides the one everliving God. Peace.

The correct term is 'Paganism', which is an umbrella term for a huge variety of religions outside of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Practitioners of Paganism are Pagan/s. The things all Pagan religions have in common are multiple deities, and a reverence for nature. For many centuries Paganism was the basis for all religious belief, including what we would now term 'organised religion'. The ancient Greeks were Pagans, and made major contributions to civilization as a whole, excelling in Philosophy (Plato for example), mathematics (Pythagoras, Aristotle), medicine (Hypocrates). They also gave us the basis of our modern justice system, and democracy. The Egyptians, Pre-Christian Romans, Celts, Picts, the Egyptians are credited with the first monotheistic religion, worshipping the sun god Ra, but it didn't last long though.

Paganism: belonging to a religion which worships many gods, especially one which existed before the main world religions. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=57037&dict=CALD Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller, rustic") is a term which, from a Western perspective, has come to connote a broad set of spiritual or cultic practices or beliefs of any folk religion, and of historical and contemporary polytheistic religions in particular. Ethnologists avoid the term "paganism," with its uncertain and varied meanings, in referring to traditional or historic faiths, preferring more precise categories such as polytheism, shamanism, pantheism, or animism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism Local religions practiced before the introduction of Christianity. Recently converted societies often dealt harshly with signs of a return to paganism. A class of religions often associated with nature rituals. While paganism is a broad term, most forms pay close attention to the lunar and solar cycles. Etymology: From paganismus, "heathenism", from paganus, "peasant, rural, rustic". The term was used as an insult by the early Christians to belittle what remained of the native religions. http://www.allwords.com/query.php?SearchType=3&Keyword=Paganism&goquery=Find+it%21&Language=ENG Paganism, in the broadest sense includes all religions other than the true one revealed by God, and, in a narrower sense, all except Christianity, Judaism, and Mohammedanism. The term is also used as the equivalent of Polytheism. It is derived from the Latin pagus, whence pagani (i.e. those who live in the country), a name given to the country folk who remained heathen after the cities had become Christian. Various forms of Paganism are described in special articles (e.g. Brahminism, Buddhism, Mithraism); the present article deals only with certain aspects of Paganism in general which will be helpful in studying its details and in judging its value. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11388a.htm Anglo-Saxon paganism refers to the Migration Period Germanic paganism practiced by the Anglo-Saxons in 5th to 7th century England. Germanic paganism refers to the religious traditions of the Germanic peoples preceding Christianization. The best documented of the Germanic Pagan religions is 10th and 11th century Norse paganism. Scattered references are also found in the earliest writings of other Germanic peoples and Roman descriptions. The information can be supplemented with archaeological finds and remnants of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore. The Germanic religion was a polytheistic religion with some underlying similarities to other Indo-European traditions. The principal gods of Viking Age Norse paganism were Odin (ON: Óðinn, OHG: Wodan, OE: Wōden) and Thor (North Germanic: Þórr, OHG: Donar, OE: Þunor). At an earlier stage, the principal god may have been Tiwaz (North Germanic: Týr, OHG: Ziu, OE: Tiw). Crypto-Pagans are pagan and neoplatonic groups that have had to pretend to be members of one religion while secretly practicing their 'native' religion. Many crypto-pagan sects exist in the Middle East; they have gone 'underground' to avoid persecution from the dominant Muslims. This can perhaps be seen in opposition to Europe, wherein pagan groups have simply been eliminated (short of recent revivals, such as the Ásatrú, and in Neo-druidism and Neopaganism), while some pagan traditions (yule, Halloween) have been absorbed into mainstream Christianity. In South America, with the aggressive evangelizing of state sponsored Christianity and the suppression of native religions, there have also, arguably, been some crypto-pagan groups. Neopaganism: Given the high Christian religiosity of the United States, many American neopagans conceal their practices in daily life to avoid being ostracized or persecuted. Modern literature gives tips to practitioners of pagan witchcraft for hiding symbols, ceremonies and altars in plain sight, and suggest innocuous replacements for traditional magical tools. For instance, City Magick, a urban pagan's guide published in 2001, gives examples of how to hide a pagan altar at your home or at work, using items such as letter openers, paper weights, and coffee cups and relaxation candles in the place of the traditional sword, stone, goblet and candle. When the British visited India for the first time, they termed Hinduism as paganism. They have burned millions of ancient Hindu texts calling them as pagan literature of devils.

after man rebelled against God and was taken out of the garden of eden. man began to slowly turn their back on the only true and living God to make up lies about other gods and found many ways of worshipping idols and stars and planets. even plants and certain days were set aside to worship false gods. As the true God of the universe became less important man created religions to appease what they thought was the truth. this is where pagan worship began to slowly creep into the catholic institution and the christians began to run away from the catholics and their many false ways. But God has never died or changed since the beginning and few know Him.

Paganism is a type of religion. It refers to pre-Christian indigenous polytheistic religions of European origin. By extension, it is used to refer to polytheistic religions in general, regardless of their ethnic origin.