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'''"Heathen"''' is an old word in Northern European languages such as English. Its original meaning was probably "dweller-on-the-heath", similar to the original "country-dweller" meaning of the Southern European word "pagan". Some historians claim that, during the conversion of Europe to Christianity, people who lived in the countryside held on to their ancestral folk religion longer than those living in the cities or towns. Because of this, the meaning of these words eventually changed to imply simply "un-Christian".
In current usage, "heathen" usually means one of three things:
1) A person who does not follow of one of the [[Abrahamic religions]]: Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.
2) A person who has no religion, often with an implication of immorality thrown in.
3) A person who follows the pre-Christian religion of Northern Europe, based on Norse or "[[Viking]]" mythology. This ancient religion has modern adherents, who use "Asatru" as the formal name for their religion. [[Asatru]] heathens object to Meaning (1), above, as too general, and to Meaning (2) as simply wrong. Asatru is a government-recognized religion in some of the Scandinavian countries. Estimates of the number of people who follow this religion vary widely, but "several thousand" is a good guess in the U.S.
[[Category:languages]]
In current usage, "heathen" usually means one of three things:
1) A person who does not follow of one of the [[Abrahamic religions]]: Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.
2) A person who has no religion, often with an implication of immorality thrown in.
3) A person who follows the pre-Christian religion of Northern Europe, based on Norse or "[[Viking]]" mythology. This ancient religion has modern adherents, who use "Asatru" as the formal name for their religion. [[Asatru]] heathens object to Meaning (1), above, as too general, and to Meaning (2) as simply wrong. Asatru is a government-recognized religion in some of the Scandinavian countries. Estimates of the number of people who follow this religion vary widely, but "several thousand" is a good guess in the U.S.
[[Category:languages]]