Sami religion is the ethnic traditional and shamanic religion of the Sami people. It is called Noaidevuohta in Sami language, literally Noaidism, Shamanism, the noaidi being the Sami shaman rank. Though it varied considerably from region to region within Samiland, it commonly emphasized gods and ancestor worship and animal spirits, such as the bear cult. Sami religion is also based on archaeological remains and written sources from missionary work in northern Scandinavia during the Middle Ages and up to the early 18th century, though some of the knowledge exists as family oral tradition.
Though the Sami were mostly forcefully Christianised from the 16th and the 17th century thereafter, there are Sami people who have wished to return to their native religion, and a revival has occurred in recent times similar to Neoshamanesque or Neopaganesque movements. In 2012 the county of Troms, in Norway, officially recognised the Sami religion through the Shamanic Association of Tromsø, part of a wider Shamanic Federation.
The traditional Sami religion is kindred to the religions of other Uralic ethnicities, such as the Finnish religion, and has many influences of Germanic Heathenism, such as the worship of god Thor as Horagalles or Thoragalles.
Read more about Sami Religion: Animal Gods, Sieidis, Noaidi, Deities
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“That, upon the whole, we may conclude that the Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)