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Samoa religion can be roughly divided into two groups. The early religion that used to exists before the contact of Samoa with the outside world and the present religion, the Christian religion. Before the arrival of the Christian missionaries in this island country, there had been primitive religion in Samoa. In this religion, which can be characterized as pantheistic, the Samoan people used to worship birds, stone, sea, rivers as their god and goddesses. But the arrival of Christianity, these people came in contact with a new world and religious faith.
In the primitive religion of Samoa, that is a kind of Pagan religion, the Samoan people used to worship various forms of nature as their gods. They were very much superstitious also. Whatever hardship they had to face at this phase, the Samoan people used to believe that some god has been displeased with them and they used to pray to abate his anger. But this form of religion had a much limited scope and as soon as Christianity arrived in Samoa, most of the Samoan people converted in this new form of religion.
Officially Christianity arrived in Samoa with missionary John Williams in 1830. He came from the London Missionary Society. But even before his arrival in this island nation, the Samoan people had already been familiarized with Christianity thorough the sailors and travelers here. Two years before the arrival of John Williams, one Methodist, named, Peter Turner came in this island and saw that Methodists Christians already exist in this island. In fact, Christianity is the religion which brought Samoa into the connection with the outer world.
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