1-On the Internet itself: Wiccans and other Neopagans have made extensive use of the Internet; they probably have more web pages per capita than followers of any other religion. Using the search string "Pagan," the Google search engine found about 459,000 hits on the Internet. 6 We found that:
The first 14 hits all referred to Wicca or another Neopagan religion.
.24 of the first 27 hits referred to a Neopagan faith tradition.



2-In conservative Christian search engines: We used the same search string on Goshen. It is perhaps the largest conservative Christian search engine. 7 It found ten web sites which referred to Paganism. Some were broken links; others had no apparent references to Pagans. But others did:
1-Five referred to ancient polytheistic religions, such as the faiths of Babylonians, Celts, Romans, etc. during biblical times and in the early history of Christianity:
An anti-Roman Catholic essay which described the use of sun wheels and obelisks of ancient Pagan religions within Roman Catholicism. 5
One condemned Christmas' practices as "merely variations of the ceremonies invented by the corrupt pagans of yesterday." It refers to the Christian concept of the Trinity as deriving from "Pagan Babylon." "The religion of pagan Babylon did not disappear...it was passed on down, to 'Mystery Babylon,'...[the] mother of abominations of the earth." 8
One promotes Christian observance of Halloween: "...someone is bound to ask why we allow our children to act out a ritual rooted in pagan and satanic beliefs..." 9
One referred to the Pagan cultures surrounding the early Christian movement. 10
Another anti-Roman Catholic essay discusses Jesus' mother Mary. It notes that the titles "Mother of God" and "Queen of Heaven" came from Pagan cultures that surrounded the early Christian movements. It says that the concept of the perpetual virginity of Mary is also Pagan, being derived from the worship of "Ashtoroth, also known as Isis, Diana, Venus, Vesta, Samariums, Istarte and Helen...".

2-One probably refers to Neopagans: The author writes that "all belief systems except atheism, paganism and satanism have had their roots from certain scriptures..." 12 Presumably, the author is not referring to ancient polytheistic religions because various cultures from Babylon to Rome had religious writings. He might possibly be referring to Aboriginal religions, which typically use an oral tradition.

Examples:
To show the wide variety of meanings attributed to the word "Paganism," we will create a context file below. It will consist of quotations from various news sources in which the term is used. We started this list on 2000-OCT-25, and only have a few entries to date:
Paganism = secularization + New Age religion, + politically liberal thinking + others:
According to U.S. Newswire:
The National Clergy Council and Operation Save Our Nation have scheduled for 2000-OCT-28 a "Jericho March" of 100 religious "intercessors" around Capitol Hill and the White House. President of the Council, the Rev. Rob Schenck said: "The concept behind this Jericho March is to 'tear down' the walls of the new 'Washington Paganism' -- the secularization, New Ageism and postmodern amoralism -- epitomized in the Clinton-Gore Administration, in the morally weak leadership in the Congress, and in the liberal members of the Supreme Court."
Paganism = ancient polytheists: According to John Silber writing in the Boston Herald:
"This opposition [to Christmas trees], then and now, rests on a recognition of the pagan origin of the Christmas tree. Indeed, as columnist Kimberley Strassel has noted in The Wall Street Journal, the Prophet Jeremiah specifically condemned as pagan the practice of cutting down trees, bringing them inside and decorating them." 14
Paganism = Non-Abrahamics:
According to a Pagan news service:
"Vatican officials have labeled Europe a "Pagan country." The comment was prompted by a statistic from Austria that 43,632 Austrians formally renounced their Roman Catholic affiliation in 1999, whereas only 3,387 converts joined the Church.


Conclusions:
Most Internet references to Paganism refer to Wiccans and other Neopagans.
Conservative Christians generally use the term Pagan to refer to ancient Polytheistic religions that adversely affected Christianity.
Other meanings of "Paganism" appear to be rarely used in contemporary literature.

Recommendations:
We recommend that the terms "Pagan" and "Paganism" never be used in speech or written form, unless:
They are precisely defined in advance, or
A known and homogenous audience is being addressed.

Otherwise mass confusion will occur. Even if it is carefully defined, listeners or readers' interpretation of the text will probably be distorted. They will carry over some of the baggage associated with their own definition of "Pagan." In place of "Pagan," we suggest that you use the actual name of the religious group that you are referring to: (e.g. Animism, Asatru, Buddhism, Druidism, Hinduism, Native American Spirituality, Wicca, etc.) to avoid ambiguity.
The term "Neopagan" has a unique definition and can be used without confusion among those who know its meaning. However, not everyone is aware of what it means.