I have never thought that atheism applied only to a Christian deity. To me it's like someone saying "I won't buy any more shoes" then starting to binge buy boots. But then, rereading your post, it seems she didn't say she was an atheist. She said she was a pagan. Reading that, I would assume that she's just believing in a different set of imaginary beings.

No, what you said was fine. What that person said was completely ridiculous. If those gods were real, why would it matter what part of the world people who worshipped them came from? Wouldn't they want everyone to worship them? Lol

There is a minority of so called White National Socialists that have rejected Christianity ( worship a Jew) and have adopted the old pre Christian European gods and will fight in the RAHOWA to Walhalla. No, you wasn't harsh to the third party person. You probably did her a favour preping her for confrontations with right wing Christians! If she thinks your harsh...?

I'd say you correctly hit the mark.

I usually also point out their necessary use of faith (belief without evidence) to sustain their fact free (testable with falsifiable evidence) position.

Fair game, you both gave an opinion.

I think you nailed it! Don't hold back especially when you are outnumbered. Don't doubt your opinion

I agree with you and Dietl is seems like they were trying to wrap racism in religion. I can see saying that a set of gods originated with one group or another, but to actually worship those gods and to tell someone else they can’t because of their race seems...wrong. I would have to suspect that they were more tied to the exclusion element of worship than any real belief.

So, to actually respond to your question, I don’t think you were too hard on them. You should always reserve the right to let racist assholes know they are racist assholes. Best case scenario, they learn something, worst case, at least they know that you know and hopefully feel a little shame

I think you were not nearly harsh enough. If someone told me about some gods being only for some people with distinct ancestry I would call them stupid racists, because that's what they are. Hiding your racism inside your spiritual and religious nonsense doesn't make it one bit less disgusting in my view.