I'm having some trouble here. I can't believe God, gods, or goddesses are humanoid, immortal beings, the typical things you hear, I personally think they are more ideas, ideas we hold high and strive to uphold and achieve, I believe it's just our minds that give them form and a name.
Ultimately it comes down to experience. It stems from the idea that everything in nature has consciousness, and also a consciousness of its own. Also that human qualities are not qualities exclusive for human beings but also found in other beings. For instance beauty, strength, aggression, purity and many others can be found in all kind of beings. Water can be pure, acid aggressive, metal is strong and resilient. etc. Yes, the same personal qualities are outside of us too.
Gods are extraordinary natural phenomena, and can be sensed in a spiritual form or in material bodies. Ancient people could clearly feel their spiritual presence and would honor their spirit for several reasons. The most important reason was however to create harmony with the surroundings they lived in. As harmony is vital for general happiness. This idea is central in Nature religions.
If you can not feel the spirit in things around you, you are likely to rationalize Gods as archetypes, personifications, even reflections of their own inner selves or attributes. But I think people mostly feel attracted to Paganism because they are more sensitive and feel a deeper connection with their environment.
It is not based on belief(!), but sublte feeling, subtle senses. However if one rejects the idea, the closed mind will not be very susceptible, because it will explain experiences away as something else, afraid to be caught in fantasies. Then one will not do practices that invoke these experiences either. One will stay clear of it, and thus one will feel justified in ones disbelief.
The Gods were only part of it. People felt the spirit in all beings, from stones, houses, streets, trees, forests, animals, the wind, waters, etc. Also one should not think that Gods were seen as super humans, but rather combinations of qualities that could take presence in beings. If people had extraordinary leader capacities they were believed to be under influence of a God. if they had them from early age they had the spirit of the God in their character, making them special, a kind of spiritual children. Revering Gods is way to acquire the qualities of the God. Which is no different than revering extraordinary humans and be "inspired" by them. Revering ancestor spirits is also an important means to create connection and sense of place in this world.
People find it hard to revere spirits as the practice has been so severely persecuted and ridiculed for centuries. Basically religion taught that there is only one God that is so far removed from our reality (supernatural) that he can not be contacted, only known through the book, giving the church a monopoly over all affairs spiritual as only the priesthood was allowed to read and interpret the book.
To get a feeling how people used to perceive the Gods, watch this
video. It is important to realize the Gods are NOT "supernatural" like the monotheist God. They are natural phenomena that can be sensed. But senses need to be developed to become "sensitive". A good horse expert can feel the well being of a horse at one glance, he is sensitive. In the same way we pick up the atmosphere when we enter a room of people. If we become very sensitive we will sense the same spirit being active in different places.
Living in Nature is very different than living in modern society. Living in Nature one is surrounded by living things, everything feels alive. One feels part of a grand living being, whose health is harmony, just like our body is a system whose health depends on the harmonious interaction of its parts. In city life one is surrounded by man's constructions mostly build with a rational purpose, man's own extensions for his desire. That creates a distance that reflects one's connection with the surroundings and one's thinking.
(jk, jk)
